Gone
by hellomynameisT
Summary: Alex and Jo are happily married and they have a daughter. One day their child disappears from their live with little tracks to follow and Jo is the prime suspect. Will they be able to pull through this?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, so I have never written a story before, this my very first time and English is not my first language but I have been learning it for years now. Therefore, I'm sorry for that I will my best and let me know how you like the story.**

**Thank you, Tatiana.**

* * *

March 20th 2020 (present day)

"I want my mommy"

"I'm here baby girl, don't cry… shh… Mommy's here"

* * *

March 25th 2016

"_Alex…" I wake up feeling a sharp pain "Alex!"_

" _What Jo? What?" Alex groans as he turns to his side to face me. I can't believe he's upset that I woke him up. I AM PREGNANT! _

"_She's ready to come out…" _

"_Who's rea… oh god, now?" he says getting up from the bed to find some clothes to put on_

" _Ahhh… Yes, Alex! Now! Do I look like I'm joking? Jerk!" I find myself screaming while I try to breathe out a contraction. "ALEX! Stop walking around the freaking room and freaking out like you're the one who's going into labour. TAKE ME TO THE FREAKING HOSPITAL" Oh god this hurts. He finally manages to get me out of bed and take me to the hospital._

_My waters broke 9 hours ago and I've been pushing for so long now, I don't know if I can keep doing it "You're doing great , give me another push, she's almost here" the midwife says to me with a bright smile on her face, I know she's wearing a mask but I can also tell she's smiling behind it._

"_I can't … I can't do it… I'm too tired." I'm crying so hard right at this point and I'm out of breath and strength too. "Why won't she just come out?"_

"_You can do it Jo, just one more time and we'll have our baby girl here with us" Alex is smiling too but he is looking at me as if he is afraid of me and he better be. He's the reason I'm here at this exact moment_

_"Why are you smiling for? This is YOUR fault! I bet you'll lose that smile next time you try to touch me!" I find some little strength left in me and I push as hard as I can. A loud cry fills the room and tears start streaming down my face, I turn my head to look at Alex and I see that he is crying too._

* * *

March 2019

""_Camilla, come on it's bed time" I've been telling my birthday girl that for the last fifteen minutes, coming in and out of her room._

_"Mommy..." She says to me but still focused on what she's doing with Alex. I think they are playing with her new computer Steph gave her as a birthday present. Thank you Steph. "Daddy say I can play five minutes" I just can't believe Alex._

"_That was ten minutes ago, just for the record." He tries to justify himself. Ten minutes? So why didn't you stop her five minutes ago? Oh, Alex you're so lucky I love you. I give him a disbelieving look. "Come on princess, let's get those pretty eyes a rest." He says picking her up off the carpet. "We will continue this tomorrow" and he kisses her on her chubby cheek because he knows what he is about to face._

"_But daddy…" she starts whimpering. "I is not tired, Mimi is not sleepy" And now he is looking at me with pleading eyes. I know what he wants to do. _

"_Don't you dare Alex… don't you dare." I threat him but he still does it anyway._

"_What if Camilla sleeps with mommy and daddy today?" He is talking to her but directing the question to me. He knows I won't say no. "Would you like that baby girl?" she nods to him and then looks at me, I immediately smile to her and she smiles back trying to get to the floor so she can run to me. I lift her up and walk to our bedroom._

"_Alex don't forget her blanket" I tell Alex while I tuck her in._

"_Yeah daddy, don't foget bankie" She's so perfect. Those hazel eyes of her remind me so much of Alex's but when she smiles…Oh, when she smiles it's like I'm looking at picture of me as child that was never taken. I can't she is three already, my precious baby. "Mommy why you cwying" She snaps me out of my thoughts. I didn't even notice I was crying._

"_Because mommy's baby girl is growing up so fast and mommy doesn't her to." She giggles like she has heard the funniest thing ever._

"_Mommy you silly."_

"_She is isn't she?" Alex says getting in the bed with us and giving Camilla her blanket. "Good night princess Camilla, good night princess Jo. I love you." He kisses us both._

"_Night daddy I love you too" she turns to me and kisses me. "Night mommy, I love you"._

* * *

Present day

**Alex's POV**

* * *

"That's weird. My wife told me to come get Camilla because she was called in for an emergency surgery and wouldn't be able to pick her up" I tell Camilla's daycare worker. They closed the daycare on the hospital and built it on the street across the hospital. The day care is still the hospital's property they just relocated it.

"Let me check the sign-in and sign-out sheet." She says to me and walks to Camilla's classroom to go get it. "Here it is. She picked her up at 4:13pm today" She shows me Jo's signature. _That's impossible_! It's 5:30pm and Jo asked me to pick her up less than an hour ago. Jo wouldn't just take her from the daycare and then forget she did it, and even if she had picked Camilla where would she have taken her to before returning to the hospital? Somebody would have to be looking after Mimi, right? My phone stars ringing on my pocket and I see Jo's number on the ID caller.

"Hey babe, I just finished the surgery. It went really well actually. Did you get Camilla yet? Oww let me talk to her I missed her so much today. Are you guys still at the daycare? I'll pass by there and then we can all go home together." My heart drops to the floor. "Alex?" She didn't do it. "Alex, babe you there?"

"Uh, wha… Yeah I'm still at the daycare."

"Okay? Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be there. Love bye."

_Oh my God… Who took our girl? Where is she…_

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**_Thank you for reading. leave your reviews and tell what you think of the story so far. should i continue it?_**

**_Thank you_**


	2. Chapter 2

**Jo's POV.**

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You know that feeling when something bad is about to happen? I woke feeling like that this morning. It's awful and I hate it, I really hope nothing happens though. I walk in the direction of Camilla's bedroom to get her up off bed, I really feel bad that she has to wake up so early most of the days Alex and I work in the morning. However, I prefer that than not getting to see her all day if we are stuck at the hospital to work on a night shift, which has happened a few times this week, if it's not Alex it's me who is stuck at the hospital. I walk into her room and see that she is lying awake in her bed, for my surprise, I usually have to wake her up but today she decided to do it herself.

"Morning princess." I say to her as I sit in bed with her. "Ready to get up?" She shakes her head. Camilla is not a very talkative person in some mornings. She'll talk to you by nods, shakes, stares, groans and whimpers, she has her days. "Why not?"

"I don't want to go. I want to go buy things for my birthday." I smile at her, which she doesn't found as cute as I do.

"Baby the stores are closed right now, but I promise we'll go right after mommy gets out of work and picks you up from daycare." She seems to be more understanding now. "Okay?"

"Yes."

"Now come on let's get up" I help her stand in her bed so that I can start to take her pajama off and put her in her street clothes. "You still want to have a princess party?"

"Yes." She is all giddy now that we start to talk about her birthday. I love seeing my baby smile and laugh for all the simple things that to her are a big deal, but who doesn't?

"You had a princess party last year. Don't you want to do something different this year?" I ask her as I put her t-shirt on.

"No mommy I was a mermaid princess. I want to be a pink and a blue princess." I look at her curiously and she smiles. "Like Princess Aurora."

"You remember being a mermaid princess?" I ask her curiously.

"Of course not, silly. I saw in the pictures on daddy's computer." She laughs. Yeah she still calls me silly more than she calls me mommy. All Alex's fault, he used to call me silly whenever I started being all soft over Camilla and she found it funny and apparently still does. I finish getting her dressed and start putting her shoes on. She is still giggling when Alex comes in.

"Am I interrupting something?" He asks us as he walks toward us and kisses Camilla on her cheek.

"No daddy we are done here. Only mommy need to get dress before we are All late." We can't help but laugh at her, I don't think she knows just how funny she is. She started all grumpy and now she is the one who's making us laugh. "Mommy you have to get ready because we need to eat."

"Okay baby girl, will you wait for me?" She looks at her father before answering me.

"No, we are hungry now. It cannot wait."

Alex gave her breakfast while I was getting ready. I still managed to eat with them though. We left the house and she realized she was going to the daycare and started crying saying that she didn't want to go. Alex calmed her down but it only until she saw the daycare building. You know that feeling I was having when I woke up? It started again when we entered the daycare. By then Camilla was crying her lungs out and hugging me So hard that I felt like crying. She didn't want to stay there and to be honest I didn't either, all I wanted was to be with her and have fun buying her princesses' stuff all day long so I kept promising her that we would do it today with no exceptions. Alex said goodbye to her first because he head a meeting in ten minutes and she kept kissing him non-stop as if she would never see him again. Alex said goodbye and left so I stayed with her for a little longer. She started to calm down but she began crying and calling for me when I let her go. The daycare worker told me that it was ok for me to leave because Camilla would calm down, but I couldn't just leave my child like that so I stayed and she fell asleep. It was hard for me to leave her, she wanted to come to work with me but I couldn't bring her today. _My poor baby._

I walked to the cafeteria at lunchtime and spotted Alex so I went to sit with him. "What's up" he asked me as soon as I sat. "You don't look like Jo today." He was right I didn't. First, it was the all incident with my baby girl, then I lost a patient on the operating table and that stupid feeling hasn't gone away either so sum it all up. My day hasn't been great.

"I just have this feeling that something wrong is going to happen…" and it is killing because I can't have anything more to happen. "I don't know… I just feel sad about Camilla maybe…"

"Yeah why was she so upset?" he holds my hand and kisses it.

"I don't know. First, I thought she was just throwing a fit but now I think she misses us… We haven't been able to spend anytime time with her this week. Do you think she is okay?"

"She has slept if off by now." I fell tears rolling down on my cheeks. "Jo she is okay, and nothing wrong is going to happen. We'll spend time with her today because I'm coming shopping with you two." He wipes my tears and rubs my cheek.

"Okay."

We finished eating and went our ways. All I kept thing was that I had three more hours and then I could see my child. Time was passing too slowly and I couldn't stop watching my freaking watch which only made it seem like every second turned into hours. I didn't have much to do in the hospital so I kept wondering if it would hurt to go check up on her but I realized it would because I'd have to return to the hospital and it could make things worse. So I stayed at the hospital checking on patients.

It's 4p.m now. I've already taken my scrubs off and I'm in my street clothes. I hear footsteps approaching me. _Please don't be Alex. _"Hey. Where are you going?" Thank god, it's Stephanie. "I mean we still have 30 more minutes before we can leave…" I turn to face her and she looks at me with a suspicious look because she knows me and realizes I'm up to something "What if you are needed?" Damn it

"I'm sure you can cover for me…" I tell her but it sounds as a question.

"Maybe… Where are you going?" I really wish nobody had seen me trying to get away.

"It's none of your business."

"So no, I'm not covering for you" She turns to leave.

"Please Steph… Just do it. I can't tell you now." I mean I could tell her but she could stop me and tell Alex and I can't have Alex knowing about this. "You will know about it later. Please?"

"Jo you're acting weird. But fine. I never saw you." She says and starts to leave.

"Thanks." I sigh. "And please don't mention this to Alex"

"Okay, as I said I never saw you." And with that she's is out of the locker room.

I start walking out of there too and when I'm about to leave an ambulance and the paramedics take the patient out of it. Dr. Hunt is the first to show up and he passes through me, while scrolling the gurney into the emergency area.

"Wilson" I hear him calling my name. "We need you on this one." I really need to leave now. I can always pretend that I didn't hear him calling me or I can pretend I didn't notice he was talking To me because nobody calls me Wilson anymore. I turn around praying that he is not there still. He has his back turned to me.

_Good! My opportunity to go._


	3. Chapter 3

**Alex' POV**

* * *

I don't know how I feel. Am I in one of those dreams that just feel so real? My main purpose to stay alive has disappeared. My baby she is gone. Just like that. How am I going to tell Jo that our kid was kidnaped from the daycare? A freaking daycare! Not a park or a crowed place where we could lose sight from her. A daycare. Is this really happening? I mean… God. What if she is just sleeping somewhere inside the daycare and nobody has noticed it yet? Right now, I'm just hoping that this is a really sick bad joke and my girl is safe in here still. The police has been called, Mrs. Taylor did that because I kind of froze for a while after Jo called me. They are on they are on their way here and so is Jo. How did this happen? I called Jane just to be sure. I asked her if she had gotten Camilla from the daycare because maybe, just maybe Mrs. Taylor could have confused her to Jo. Janet is Jo older sister. Three years ago, Jo decided she wanted to look for her family, it was hard for her because we were constantly going to dead ends, but she found Jane. Jane is only eleven months older than Jo, she was abandoned too when she was still a baby. Apparently their mother got that as a habit. She is a lot alike Jo but her hair is darker, like black, and she is taller. Anyways she told me she didn't have her and she isn't anywhere near Seattle but she is coming here. It's 5:47 now which means Camilla has been missing for more than an hour and half. Mrs. Taylor still swears she handed Camilla to Jo and Camilla was asleep when they left. I have yelled at her in front of the other kids and now I'm sitting on a couch in an office waiting for her to bring Jo in. I'm still hoping my kid will walk in here.

"Hey babe" I hear her voice but I don't hear a bubbly 'Hi daddy' so I guess it is true; she really isn't here. "Why are you in here?"

"I, uh… Come here." I tell her pointing on the sit next to where I am and she does as I say.

"Alex? What's wrong? Where is Camilla?" Jo says and her face is full of fear. I'm trying my hardest not to cry right now. "Alex? Talk to me…"

"Someone… Camilla she… she is not here."

"Then where is she?!" Her eyes open wide and I can see that she is fighting her tears." What do you mean she is not here?"

"Mrs. Taylor says that you… Apparently somebody posing as you came pick her up."

"What? Who?" She looks nonchalant now, which is, I don't know… Strange. I just told her someone took our child and she is… I don't know, maybe she didn't properly understand.

"Jo, Camilla was kidnaped by-"

"You're kidding right?" She interrupts me, now appearing panicked. I got a bit scared from her previous reaction "Alex? Where is she?"

That question, I have no answer for that question. Oh my god, where is Camilla? Who could possibly take her but us? I didn't… neither did Jo. "I don't know… She was taken almost two hours ago…" _Two hours. She could be anywhere now. She could be so far away right now_. Somebody knocks on the door pulling me out of my thoughts. I take my eyes from Jo and I see a police officer and a man that doesn't look much like a police officer coming in into the room. Jo hasn't said anything more, she has frozen since after I told her I didn't know where Camilla is, I think it has just hit her that our daughter is missing.

"Mr. and Mrs. Karev, I'm Detective Morgan and I'm here to ask you some questions so that we can proceed to the next steps." He presents himself "Ma'am I know this is hard but I need you to calm yourself. Every minute counts." He says directing to Jo. She has zooned out and it's just staring at the wall in front of us with tears flowing down from her eyes.

"Jo, babe we are going to find her…"

"Jane." She whispers and widens her eyes as if a tiny bit of hope rushed through her body "Jane, have you called her? Maybe she has her" She is smiling now, she is broken but smiley, deep down she knows Camilla isn't with Jane.

"No Jo…"

"Then call her."

"I have called her after you called me, she isn't with her… She is coming to here to be with us..."

"So, your daughter's professor says her mother came to pick her up two hours ago and-" The detective starts to talk.

"I'm HER mother and I did NOT take my child out of here." Jo interrupts him "Otherwise we wouldn't be here."

"Oh sorry Ma'am, I thought you were the child's stepmother." Is he for real right now?

"You should be LOOKING for our child, NOT MAKING ASSUMPTIONS!" I tell him, starting to get angry because nobody is doing nothing for the fact that our daughter is missing.

"So, this is your signature here, am I right?" He says looking at Jo and ignoring me.

"Yes, but I didn't sign that…" Jo seems more calm than I am right now "Anybody could have done that!"

"Sr?" I make him look at me this time "Are you trying to say that my wife was the one who abducted our daughter?" I ask him disbelieved. "Is that what you are saying?"

"I'm just verifying the facts we have here." I could punch him right now "We have her signature here and we have-"

"GO FIND MY DAUGHTER!" Jo yells at him standing up from the couch "I HAVE ALREADY TOLD YOU NONE OF US TOOK HER!"

"Where were you today at 4:13 pm?" at that Jo sits back down and does not respond.

* * *

"I want my mommy"

"I'm here baby girl, don't cry… shh… Mommy is here. It was just a bad dream"

"I want my blankie."

"Where is it?"

"In the toy's box"

"Here."

"Are we going to the stores now?"

"Not now baby."

"But you promised…"

"We can go later."

"Today?"

"We'll see."

"But mommy…"

"We will go as soon as we're done with this. I promise. Don't cry okay?"

"Is daddy home?"

"No."

"Well, where is he?"

"He is… Just not here. . Are you still sleepy?"

"I don't think I am… Where is daddy, mommy?"

"Good. Can you help me pack?"

"Why mommy? Where are we going?"

"Somewhere new."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Jo's POV**

* * *

I can't believe I had to go through that. I can't believe they actually asked me those kind of questions like where I was and doing what or if I was sure I never went to the daycare and took my daughter out of there. How would I be able to though? Leave the hospital, go to the daycare and take Camilla out of there, leave her somewhere, then return to the hospital without being noticed and pretend that nothing had happen? I mean Stephanie did see me prepared to get out of the hospital... Still, they are crazy for sure. Oh and I forgot to mention that I supposedly called Alex, asking him to pick our daughter up from the daycare, to have an 'alibi' just in case. Anyways that alibi wouldn't count because Mrs. Taylor did see me, right? I signed that paper! I did it somehow, at least it is what it says. Since they have no leads on how she was taken, there isn't any descriptive information of the abductor, but mine, or her vehicle they can't issue an alert. They are looking for her now but they didn't post an AMBER alert, so we will have to go to the medias. Alex and I went to the police department with Detective Morgan to make declarations so that they could proceed with the case. He then asked us to guide him to our house so that they can 'investigate' because I am suspect number ONE, so, he is coming home with us. He is in a car behind ours and there is another one police car heading there too. Alex is driving beyond mad because, one: our daughter was taken from the daycare, two: it took them a long while to start looking for her and three: they are trying to pinning this down on me. I can tell that he is trying his hardest not to explode and assault this Mr. Detective Morgan and all of his team, at least they have already started looking for Camilla. It's been almost three and a half hours now since she has been missing, they didn't do anything earlier because they thought she was somewhere safe where I had taken her to, so right now whoever took her has a huge advantage on us, she can be anywhere now.

"Alex?" I say looking at him. He is just looking at the road "What if they don't find her?"

"Then I will." He says without taking his attention from the road "I will go _anywhere_ after her."

"Remember when I told you this morning that I had a bad feeling?"

"Yeah" He still doesn't look at me.

"What if…" I feel it, I'm going to cry. I feel so empty inside, like all my emotions have just drained out. I have been given the world and it has been taken away from met this easily "What if it never goes away?"

"It will. I promise." He sheds a tear, reaches for my hand, and squeezes it "I promise. Everything will be okay and she will be running around like crazy in here very soon. I promise"

We are home and she is everywhere. Her little bicycle is in front of the house and there is chalk drawing all over the sidewalk, I don't even know if I'll be able to go into the house. Detective Morgan and his crew have already got out of their vehicles and they are waiting on us to do it too. I turn to the backseat to see if she is asleep and then remember that she isn't with us… _I hope you are okay baby._

* * *

**Alex's POV**

Right now I would rather have my body parts ripped one by one without any type of pain killer. Yeah I could bear that pain easily comparing to the one I'm feeling. I don't even think I'm feeling anything anymore. What do you do when you feel like there is nothing left inside of you? I have felt so many things before, happiness, sadness, excitement, disappointment, true pain, but nothing like this. I have a hollow inside of my chest, my heart has stop working properly, I can't think anymore, I don't know what do or worse I don't know how to feel. The house is so quiet without her. I can't even call it home anymore, because what is home now? I thought the worst that had ever happened to us until today, was the time when Camilla was admitted to the PICU for having caught pneumonia when she was sixteen months. I thought that was the worst thing that we could ever go through. What we are going through right now doesn't even compare to that. She forgot her old stuffed pink bunny on the center table this morning. She carries that around ever since she started to walk. We always have her blanket just in case she doesn't feel safe with her bunny. _My poor kid._ Wait, no she didn't. I gave it to her in the car when she was crying and she didn't eat at the center table either…

"Jo?" I say to her as she starts going upstairs "This wasn't here this morning… She didn't leave it behind and we all ate in the kitchen."

"Bag that plate for evidence. It's plastic, fingerprints stick better in it." Detective Morgan says to one of the guys that came with him. Jo stopped at the middle of the stairs and is looking at the animal I have in my hands trying to recall if Camilla did leave it or not. I am one hundred percent sure she didn't.

"Oh my god." She says and lifts her hand to cover her mouth as if she had realized something "She was here... How?" She turns around and starts running upstairs. I follow right behind her in the direction to Camilla's bedroom. I see Jo leaned against the doorframe sobbing. "She was here Alex… She was here. Look at that." I walk over to her so I can look at what she is pointing at. I can't believe my eyes when I look into her bedroom. As if the fact that somebody kidnapped her from the daycare wasn't enough, they had to bring her home, then do this and then take her again. They brought her home to take her away from us again?

_How long ago did this happen?_


	5. Chapter 5

**Alex' POV**

* * *

All of her drawers were, and are still, open and empty. The clothes she was wearing yesterday were lying on her bed, there were a couple of clothes on the carpet too and the rest is gone. Detective Morgan told us not touch anything in her room, but there is actually little we could touch in there. Jo and I went to our bedroom and noticed that Camilla's passport is missing, also her travel bags and so are some of Jo's clothes, which only made it worse for Jo. They just kept giving her the looks as if she was guilty of all of that. I even heard them saying she took her somewhere so she can run away with her and that they don't understand why she "pretended" the kidnap and didn't just left instead. I was going to kick them out but Jo told they were just doing their job and that we needed them to find her, but I swear I've had enough of him, I need another detective. We couldn't get any sleep or food in our system, we were just waiting for the phone to ring and be told that she was found safe and sound. We have already reported her abduction to the medias and came back home after that. Detective Morgan hasn't called us yet since we met him early this morning. Jo left for around ten this morning, she said she couldn't be here anymore and went out for a walk. I'm starting to get worried about her because she has left for almost three hours now. I've tried to call her but she isn't answering her cellphone. I called Stephanie to know if Jo was with her but she didn't answer her phone either. Meredith called me about fifteen minutes ago and told me she is coming here

"_Yesterday, March 20__th__, a little after 4 o'clock at the afternoon, a three year old little girl went missing from Grey Sloan Memorial Daycare According to the police, someone posing as her mother took three-year-old Camilla Karev from her daycare. There are evidences that the little girl was taken to her house, where she lives with her parents Alexander and Josephine Karev both surgeons from Grey Sloan Memorial hospital, after the abduction from the daycare and-" _

I hear to doorbell ring and shut the TV off. I get up from the couch and head to the door to open it to Meredith.

"Oh Alex…" I hear her saying as I walk back to the couch "How are you?" I just shrug my shoulders and sit down. She walks into the living room and sits with me in the couch.

"I'm barely hanging on. I hate to be sitting here and doing nothing while my daughter is somewhere out there with someone she doesn't know." I tell her and she puts her hand my right shoulder and squeezes it.

"Everything is going to turn out okay. You have to stay optimistic about it." She says and I lift my eyes up from the floor I was staring at and look in her eyes.

"I'm going to lose it Mer, I can't take this anymore. Not knowing where she is… How… how did this happen? Why my kid?" She puts her hand on my face and wipes the tears that are falling from my eyes from my cheek "I don't even understand… I mean… Why? Why would they take her? How did the daycare just let anyone take her? It makes no sense!"

"I can't imagine how you're feeling. Whoever it is that took Camilla will answer your questions, but you have to believe, Camilla will be here soon." Will they, though? I know it's too soon but every single minute that goes by I lose a tiny shred of hope. I know it is too soon for it but it has been almost twenty-four FREAKING hours and there's no sign of her. There is no tracks of where they might have gone to with her. There is NOTHING that leads us to her but the fact that 'Jo did it' according to them. And it is breaking me. Piece by piece. "Have they said anything else? The police?"

"No." I sniff and shake my head "There's nothing new. They just said that they are searching the surroundings for her and that they asked the security tapes from the daycare but haven't been able to get them yet." I still have her little bunny on my hand. I couldn't let it go, and I refuse to. It's the only material thing we have that she loves. She must be so scared… "You what" I look back at her and she nods so that I can continue what I was going to say "She… My baby… She didn't want to go there yesterday…"

"Alex! Stop right there." She puts her hands on both of my cheeks and forces me to look at her "This is NOT your fault, you hear me? You could not have known that this would have happen."

"She just wanted to be with us… she didn't want to go there, but none of us was could take her to the hospital. We were too freaking busy to be able to stay with her. We were supposed to go shopping with her, you know… for her birthday. We promised her and… and now… we uh… we won't be able to keep our promise" I'm just crying because I can't take these images from my head. Her crying. The last time I saw her she was crying for me and I… I just walked away because I had to freaking work. My child was crying for me and I went to work. Her crying is the last thing I saw and heard from her. I want to hear her giggles and out loud laughs again. I want to see her filling this house with her bubbly contagious joy. I do even want to her crying again, at least that would mean she was here, here with me and I could make it go away.

"Alex you guys couldn't predict it." She hugs me and lets me cry in her shoulder "Yesterday you didn't tell me if the police had any suspects…" she says as she pulls away to look me in the eyes again "Do they have any?" I nod at her question "Who?"

"They think Jo did it…" I say it in a whisper.

"What?!" she looks at me shocked with what I just said "That's ridiculous!"

"Yeah tell me about it. Mrs. Taylor swears with her life that Jo went there, picked Camilla up, sign the paper and then left, and with that, the police thinks that she came here with her and then took her somewhere else. Beyond stupid right?"

"Yeah that is just… it's absurd!" she shakes her head and looks perplexed

"Yeah… I'm starting to think he did it. The detective, with the help of that Taylor lady. I mean he doesn't seem to care about the case that much… I wonder why this had never crossed my mind, but right now it is what I'm thinking that happened. I know Jo didn't sign that paper for sure. She was in the hospital at that time."

"Actually…" Meredith starts to talk but then stops to ponder about what she is going to say "Nevermind, it's irrelevant" I nod at her, I wonder what she was going to say but if she says it is irrelevant then it won't hurt not knowing "Jo, how is she? Is she sleeping?" I shake my head at her "I want to talk to her" she says getting up from the couch "Where is she?"

"I don't know. She left three hours ago."


	6. Chapter 6

I am going to start writing the next chapters like this one because I want to have Camilla/kidnapper interactions and I cannot find a way to write Camilla's POV and also because words come out easily if I do it this way. Hope you enjoy it and tell me if you want me to keep it this way or back to the POVs. Thank you for reading.

* * *

"What do you mean, she left?"

"Calm down. She wanted to get some air and went out for a walk. She was feeling suffocated in here." Alex answered her "She should be back soon"

"Quite a walk… Well, Alex I have to go." She told him and open her arms so she could hug him "I am here for you. You can call us anytime, Derek and I, you know that right?" Alex only nodded for an answer and they stood like that for a little until Meredith pull back and walk towards the door to leave. Alex decided to go upstairs to his bedroom so he could lay down for a little bit but stopped in the way for catching the sight of his daughter room. He rested his head against the door frame and took a travel through time remembering every moment they had spent in that division with her, how she took her first steps in there, how they would lay on the floor just watching her play. He smiled remembering on night he had put Camilla in her crib, turned from her for a brief moment, and before he noticed, she had climbed from her crib and was standing in front of it looking at him. He got lost in his thoughts and when he snapped out of them he felt sadness all over his body remembering that his daughter wasn't there in her bedroom. He started walking to where he was going in the first place, his bedroom. When he got there he sat on his bed and put his hands on his face rubbed it. He was tired, tired of waiting for Detective Morgan to call him to tell them they had found their daughter. He was tired of doing nothing. All he wanted to do was to find Camilla and bring her home safe but he didn't know where to look. He sighed loud and reach his jeans pocket to take his phone out of them. When looked at his phone screen he saw the time and it was past 3 p.m., he then dialed Jo's number in it and called her. _Pick you phone up Jo, I need to know where you are, you can't disappear from me too._ He thought to himself, _pick up._ She didn't answer his call again, Alex tried to call her again and again and again but it was all in vain, she wouldn't answer it. He got up, put his phone on is nightstand and then lie down on their bed and closed his eyes. His tiredness took the best of him and he fell asleep. After a while, Alex started tossing and turning in his sleep, kicking his feet and crying. _His daughter face kept popping up in his mind, he was seeing her running from them over and over again. He tried to run to her but every time he did it she seemed to get further and further away and he couldn't reach her, _"Camilla, wait", he cried in his sleep._ He then saw Jo appearing in it, holding their daughter's hand and both of them waving goodbye at him and smiling_. _He ran even faster but when he reached them, they were both gone._ "NOOOOOOOOOO!"

He woke up with his own scream, his body sweating as if he had run a marathon, his breath was out of control and his heart was beating hard and fast against his chest. He sat with his back against the bed headboard and rubbed his eyes because his vision was blurry, he then realized his vision was blurry because of his tears and not from his sleepiness, so he wiped the remaining tears that were on his cheeks. He tried to shake his nightmare from his head but it kept replaying over and over endlessly. He felt guilty when he realized he was seeing Jo take his daughter from him. _Jo? Is she home yet?_ He thought to himself

"Jo?" he yelled her name "Are you home?" he didn't have any response. He got up and went downstairs to see if she had got home and eventually fell asleep on the couch, she wasn't there yet. He looked at his watch and it was eleven past four. He looked for her in every room of their house and she was nowhere to be found. _Where are you Jo?_

The loud sound of his phone ringing shook him off his thoughts and he returned to his bedroom and he reached for his phone in his nightstand to see who was calling him, hoping it was Jo to tell him her whereabouts but it wasn't her. Whoever was calling him was doing it with a blocked id, as it was showing in his cellphone screen.

"Hello?" he said and waited for an answer from the other line but it didn't seem to be one "Hello? Who is this?" he could make out noises in the background but couldn't tell what it was. He was about to hang up when a familiar voice came on the phone

"Hello" Alex froze where he was standing and he could feel his heart race and a lump forming in his throat. He couldn't believe who it actually was. The little voice that he was waiting to hear since yesterday morning when he last heard it.

"Camilla? Where are you baby?" he asked still not believing he was actually talking to his daughter "Who are you with? Where are you?"

"Daddy!" he heard his little girl squeal on the other side of the phone "Hi daddy, I miss you"

"Camilla tell daddy where you are okay? I will come there right now! Where are you?" he said sprinting downstairs to grab his car keys so he could go wherever his daughter said she was "Baby, where are you?"

"I am not supposed to tell where we are, Daddy" she said after a little while, Alex was already in his car and was about to start the engine when he heard his girl giggling "You can't find us"

"Who is us baby?"

"Mommy and I" with that he heard the sound of the call end.


	7. Chapter 7

Alex had left his car and entered the house again about an hour ago, not believing what had happened. He was walking around on his living room, pondering if he should maybe call Detective Morgan and shared with him that he had talked to his daughter or wait for Jo, to tell her when she got home, since she wasn't answering her phone still. He kept replaying in his head the conversation he had had with daughter, every single word she had told him. Two things about their conversation were disturbing him : the fact his little girl seemed like she was happy and unware of what was going on and being away from her home and the fact that she said she was with her Mother and that they weren't supposed to be found. Her ingenuousness made him think that whomever was keeping her had to be someone she was familiar with otherwise she'd be crying and asking him to take her home. But the question was, who was that person? Apparently, his daughter thought she was with her mother. _Was she?_ He didn't know where Jo was either. The thought of Jo being responsible for all of that was happening was becoming more and more tangible in Alex' mind. He wasn't even thinking about how much he missed his daughter anymore, all that was going through his mind was that Jo had done it. He didn't want to believe it, but what else could he do? First was the daycare lady, then the detective and now, even Camilla was saying that she was with her mother.

_What if she really did it? And how could she? That would mean that Jo has been lying all this time, but she hasn't, right? Meredith! She was going to say something when I told her that Jo was at the hospital when Camilla was taken as she said she was. Was she going to deny it? Stop it Alex! Jo did not do this. But Camilla… why would she called mommy to somebody else, other than Jo? _

He had his cellphone on his hand ever since he finish talking to his daughter hoping that she would call again, he looked down at it and decided that it was important to let Detective Morgan know what happened. He started to dial the man's number on his phone when he heard voices coming from the front door and a second later the door opening. He walk in the direction where the sound of his wife voice was coming from, he saw Jane coming in first and then Jo, closing the door behind her.

"Where the hell have you been Jo?" he asked her not even bothering to acknowledge the present of his sister-in-law "What kind of walk takes seven hours?"

"I went to-" Jo started talking only to be interrupted by Alex

"Do you have any idea of how worried I have been?" he yelled at her, making both his wife and sister-in-law jump slightly

"I'm sorry… I didn't-"

"Why didn't you answer your phone? I have been calling you for the last freaking four hours!" he told her, then looked at Jane, and soothed his voice greeting her "Hi Janet."

"Hi Alex." She said waving at him and looked back to her sister who was standing beside her with a shocked look on her face, she then turned back to Alex "How are you?"

"Fine" he said looking back at Jo, leaving Jane looking between him and her sister.

"So," Jane started making both of them taking their eyes of each other and look at her "I'm going to go upstairs and leave you both alone… to talk" she said slowly and then headed to the stairs taking her small luggage with her. Alex waited until he heard the bedroom door close to start talking again, this time a little more in his normal voice.

"Couldn't you have texted me or something?" he asked her

"I didn't know how long I had been out… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you…"

"You didn't mean to worry me?" he repeated her words "Jo, our daughter is missing, only God knows where she is and-"

"Do you think I haven't noticed that she isn't here?!" she interrupted him by yelling " I just… I didn't watch the hours, or my cellphone for the matter."

"You can't not answer your phone Jo" he said more calmly now "We can't not talk to each other for this long, something could have happen. You need to be in touch Jo."

"What could have possibly happen, Alex? She is nowhere near to be found."

And then he remembered what he wanted to do and know at the first place. Jo seemed so sure of herself when she said that. _She is nowhere near to be found._ He needed to know why she was so sure of it when he wasn't.

"Wha- What do you mean?" he said it, blinking his eyes and shaking his head at her for not being able to cope with Jo's behavior "Why do you say that Jo? Do you know something that I don't?"

"You know that the first twenty-four hours are crucial. They have NOTHING to go after to. I am sorry, I am so sorry that I wanted to disappear for a little while but I… I just could not stand being here while she is out there somewhere probably scared to death or God knows how. And no, I don't know anything that you don't." she said and started to walk towards the stairs passing by Alex, but she couldn't go any further from that because he grabbed her arm and made her turn around.

He couldn't understand why she was acting so indifferent and being so annoyed to the current situation. If anyone should be annoyed, it had to be him, who had to go through seven hours without knowing where his wife was on top of the fact that his daughter was already missing. Basically he didn't know where is family was. He looked at her eyes and so something between anger and guilt but he couldn't understand why. He needed to know what was going through his wife head but he couldn't read her. He opened his mouth and tried to say something but nothing was coming out. He couldn't find the right words and he didn't want to hurt her by saying what he was thinking she had done and above that, he didn't want to believe what he was thinking so he had no idea what to do. Her eyes were giving it all away but at the same time they gave nothing. _Mommy and I_ he thought and he needed to know if his daughter meant what she was saying.

"I… I" he started without knowing how to continue "Jo… I… You…"

"Alex?" Jo spoke up, trying to read his eyes as well and his expressions were showing that he thought to be sure about something he did not want to be. And then she knew. She knew exactly what he was thinking "Oh my God." She whispered and felt her eyes sting with the tears that were starting to for in them.

"Somebody called me while you were gone" he managed to say

"Who she asked and looked up to the ceiling trying to hold in the tears that were threatening to crawl out of her eyeballs "Who was that _somebody_ that called you?"

"Camilla…" And then the tears started to roll down on her cheeks meeting in her chin and dropping to her neck as she heard Alex saying their daughter's name. "She didn't manage to say much. But by the way she was 'acting' I could tell that she isn't scared. I think she is with someone she knows…"

Jo brought her face back down to look at Alex and wiped her tears away. She didn't know how to react or what to say, but she knew that she needed to say something. She just couldn't organize her thoughts and get something to come out of her mouth. Her mind was racing but she wasn't able to tell herself what she was thinking about. Millions of thoughts were overpowering her mind at that moment. She knew what Alex meant by saying that Camilla was with someone she knew but she decided to pretend that she didn't.

"What did she say? Who is she with, Alex? Where?" she asked with tears escaping her eyes again.

"I don't know Jo… She said that she missed us" he lied not quite sure knowing why he had done it "And then she hang up, I mean, someone did it for her because she couldn't have called by herself in the first place."

"Have you called Morgan yet? We need to do it. We need to call him." She said searching for her phone on her purse. And for the first time after his conversation with their daughter he felt truly guilty for even considering that Jo was with their baby girl. Still he needed to be the first to know where she had been, because he knew for sure that Morgan would ask her that.

"Where were you, Jo?"


	8. Chapter 8

"Hey pumpkin. You're up" She said to the little girl that was coming down the stairs to the living room, rubbing her eyes for the fact that she had woken up from her nap "Come here" She picked her up to sit on her lap and Camilla placed her head against the woman's chest.

"Is Daddy here already?" the little girl asked making the woman look down at her.

"No, not yet. Do you want to watch some cartoons?" She asked her trying to prevent the child from keep asking questions about her father. Camilla nodded against her chest. The woman leaned over to the table center to grab the control remote so that she could change to the cartoons' channel. They watched it with Camilla giggling every once in a while and then she lift her head and looked at the woman.

"Mommy, I'm hungry"

"Okay, let's eat then" She said getting up and carrying the little girl on her hip towards the kitchen "Do you want anything in particular?"

"What is particular?" the girl asked with a confused look on her face making the woman laugh a little at her.

"I'm sorry sweetie, I sometimes forget that you are only three. I meant if you want to choose what you will eat." She said sitting the little girl on a chair by the kitchen table.

"No, not really" Camilla said getting on her knees and putting her elbows on the table

"Okay" the woman responded and started to prepare a bowl of fruit, cereal and yogurt, chatting with kid while doing it. After a while, she noticed that Camilla had a sad look on her face. "What's wrong baby girl? Are you sad?" the girl nodded in response "Why is my baby sad?"

"I want to see my Daddy" Camilla said starting to whimper.

"Oh baby, you will see him soon, okay?" She walked to the other side of the kitchen to comfort the little girl "Don't cry, okay?" She kissed her temple and wiped her tear, and Camilla nodded "Come on, let's eat." She held her hand out to help Camilla out of the chair and they walked back to the living room.

Camilla was eating and watching cartoons kneeling on the carpet and sometimes getting up to sit on the couch, while the woman was pondering to make the little girl a little bit happier. And she decided to do it. She took the cellphone that was on the center table and dialed Alex's number. She placed the phone near her ear and waited for the other line to start ringing, when she heard Alex' voice she muted the call to speak to Camilla without being heard by him.

"Camilla I have someone that wants to talk to you, but you to promise me that you won't answer any of the questions that they ask you, okay?"

"Okay, I promise" the girl answered and then the woman un-muted the call and put it on speaker mode "Hello" Camilla said

"Camilla?" she heard a man's voice but didn't recognize it at first until she heard it again "Where are you baby? Who are you with? Where are you?" she looked at the woman standing beside her, widening her eyes so big in surprise and having an even bigger smile on her face, which made the woman smile too.

"Daddy!" She said jumping in contentment "Hi daddy, I miss you" she giggled for being speaking to the man she had been wanting to see since they left her house.

"Camilla tell daddy where you are okay? I will come there right now" she nodded her head as if he could see her "Where are you?" she opened her mouth to answer him but then remembered the promise she had made to the woman standing beside her, and looked up at her. The woman shook her head as no to Camilla's silent question "Baby where are you?"

"I am not supposed to tell where we are, Daddy" she said and looked up to the cartoon that was on because it had caught her attention, and then she giggled at it "You can't find us?"

"Who is us baby?" She heard her father ask and for a moment, she forgot what the woman made her promise and answered his question.

"Mommy and I"

The woman grabbed the phone as fast as she could and hung the call up before Alex could say anything else.

"Mommy?" the girl with a sad shocked look on her face "I didn't say goodbye"

"What did mommy tell you?" She asked the girl "You could not answer any of his questions."

"Sorry" Camilla said holding her own hands and looking down to floor "Can we call daddy again? So I can tell him goodbye?" she asked, unfolding her hands and looking back up, with excitement filling her voice and her eyes.

"No, not today."

"But mommy… I didn't say goodbye to daddy" the girl insisted.

"Camilla Skye!" she scolded her for insisting, and in return, the little girl cried. "I'm sorry baby…" she said and leaned down to held Camilla but Camilla step away crying even louder.

"Nooo" she said to the woman who was trying to hug her "You are being mean." She cried. Then the doorbell rang, the woman got up and walk towards it. Camilla stopped crying suddenly remembering that her daddy told her that he would come to get her and followed the woman to the door hoping it was her father standing there.

"Hi. Thank you so much for coming. You saved me." The woman greeted a young girl who was in her early twenties.

"No problem. I was free to come, it wasn't a big deal"

And then Camilla started to cry again when she realized it wasn't her father at the door. They both looked at the little girl that was standing at the living room entrance crying.

"Skye, this is Mia. She will stay with you for the rest of the day." The woman told Camilla making her look at Mia who was waving at her.

"Hi Skye, I know you don't remember me, but I used to take care of you when you were just a tiny little baby" the young girl lied.

"Hi" Camilla managed to say through her crying that was subsiding.

"Okay, she just finished eating, so when it's around 6:30/7:00 you can give her her dinner which is done already. She has to be in bed by 8:30 top. She is going to cry when I leave, her blanket is on the couch right there." She told Mia, who was nodding her head in acknowledge. She the squatted in front of Camilla "Baby girl, I'm going to have to leave for a little while, okay? Mia will stay with you, okay?" she told her.

"No, I want to come with you" she started whimpering again and hugged the woman wrapping her little arms around the woman's neck trying to either make her stay or to go with her.

"I can't take you with me baby." The woman said and kissed Camilla on her temple.

"Then I want to go home to daddy, please." She cried and the woman got up wrapping her arms around Camilla's body to support her.

"I can't take you to your daddy's home either, but mommy will be back soon" she said handing Camilla to Mia. The little girl fought, throwing her legs in the air and scream when the woman made her let go of her "Bye baby, I love you." She said and left.

"MOMMY!" Camilla screamed through her sobs still fighting from Mia embrace.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Where have you been, Jo?" Alex asked her again since Jo did not answer his previous question. She just stood there looking at him with disbelief in her eyes.

"Wh-Why does it matter?" she asked him back "Alex…"

"Why does it matter?! Oh my God Jo! I think I deserve to know where you were for the past seven hours." Alex said throwing his hands in the air and putting them on his hips waiting for her to answer his question "So where were you?"

"You want to know where I went? So let me see…" she started "I drove to the hospital's daycare first and then from there I drove to the _mysterious_ place where _I _am keeping our daughter at." She told him laughing in anger with tear slipping from her eyes "Oh I almost forgot. Jane came with me and helped me with _everything_, and then we drove back here together." She said and turned her back to him to go upstairs but Alex grabbed her arm again "LET GO OF ME, ALEX!" she yelled threatening him.

"Jo. Come on." He begged her "You know that's not what I was implying by asking you where you have been…" he told and tried to pull her close to him but she pulled away.

"Oh, really?" she asked him sarcastically.

"Come on, Jo. I was worried sick about you. You can't do this to me…" he said pulling her closer again and this time she didn't step back and let him hug her.

"I can't have you not believing me..." she said through sobs "Not you Alex. I can take anyone else doing it, but not you Alex. Please…"

"I'm sorry Jo. I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. It's just… She said she was with you and I stop thinking. I'm sorry." He said rubbing her back up and down.

"What?" Jo pulled her head from his chest and looked at him. "Why would she say that?" Alex just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I drove to hospital's daycare because that was the last place that you, I mean _we_ saw her at and then I planned on getting out of the car but I couldn't, so I just sat there crying. The Stephanie saw my car and walked too it, we talked for w while before she had to go into the hospital. So after that I started to drive without any destiny and stopped a few miles later. Then I got out of the car and started to distribute the papers with her picture on and I gave one to a blonde woman who I found out to be your ex-wife." She said and he scrunched his face "I know. Weird, right?"

"I didn't know she was back…" he told her.

"Apparently she is. So then we sat together and talked for a little while."

"What did you guys talk about?" he interrupted her.

"She told me how sorry she was and that she wouldn't know what to do if someone took her little girl too, and then she gave me her card and told me to call her if we needed anything. Oh and she said hi."

"She gave you her number? And she has a kid." he asked.

"Yes." She answered his question. "Then I stayed ther-"

"Izzie can't have kids." He interrupted her again.

"Well she can if she adopts them." She said looking at him weirdly "So as I was saying. I stayed there for a little longer after she left and then walked back to my car. Then I saw your missing calls, and I was going to call you, I swear, but then Jane called me and told me that she was at the airport and I went to get her and then we talked and drove here together. I'm sorry, I meant to call you…"

"No, I'm sorry. For doubting you and all. We have to call Morgan. He will probably make you say all this again and _will _make you have to prove it." He said looking down at her.

"Of course he will… but I don't care anymore…. As long as he brings my child back home I don't care what he has to do."


	9. un(revealed)

**Chapter 9**

**Un(Revealed) **

"Any progress in the investigation?" Ales asked the detective. He had come to their house after Alex called him to inform that he had talked to his daughter. He was sitting in the rolling chair in front of the couch where Jo and Alex were sitting, taking notes on his notepad and it was taking everything in Jo for her not to snap at him because of the looks he was giving her.

"I am afraid not Mr. Karev. We are doing everything we can but we I am afraid we are reaching a dead end." He answered him.

"What do you mean by that?" Jo asked the detective feeling a wave of horror rush through her body and reaching for Alex' hand "You can be done with everything… it's too soon"

"The fingerprints we found on the plate were only your daughter's. There isn't any strange fingerprints in the objects we took from here, just yours and Camilla's mostly, we found partial fingerprints in some of them but they were so small and fading that we were unable to even test them." He said looking at both Alex and Jo with apologetic eyes.

"But you are not giving up, are you?" Alex ask fearing the detective's answer, "You cannot call it off" he said.

"I will not give up. Not until we find your daughter and we will find her" he assured them with a small smile. "We have been talking to the daycare workers. Speaking of which we have the testimony of the new girl that started working there yesterday, Mia Roberts, do you know her?"

"No." Jo said widening her eyes in surprise, "I mean… I don't think we do, do we?" she said turning her head to look at Alex for his confirmation.

"I met her yesterday. She is doing an internship at Camilla's class." Alex answered them.

"How come I didn't see her?" she asked raising her eyebrows in confusion "Was she there when-"

"According to Miss Roberts, you two did meet yesterday too," the detective told her with an accusing smile tugging at the corner of his lips "but we will go there in a minute. When did you received a call from your daughter?" he asked them leaving Jo with a confuse look on her face from his previous statement.

"A little after four…" he responded the detective, narrowing his eyes in confusion as Jo. They watched as the detecting continued to write in is notepad "Have you looked at the daycare's security tapes yet?" He asked after a little pause

"We had a little problem with the tapes from the daycare" _Brilliant! That is just great._ Alex thought, rubbing his face with his hands. Jo seemed to be stopped in time, looking in the detective's direction but not looking at him nor paying any attention to what he and Alex were saying to each other. She seemed lost in her thoughts. Alex squeezed her hand to bring her back to reality and it worked, she looked at him and gave him a tiny smile "But we will have the hospital ones by Monday morning." The detective said.

"Why? Why do you need those for?" Jo asked and Morgan gave her a 'because I know you are lying' look, which made Jo roll her eyes at him

"Just a standard procedure. We need to verify everything." He said and went back to write down on his little notepad "Where were you when the called was received?" he asked them. Alex looked at Jo before answering the detective's question.

"I was here at home…" he started "Alone."

"Okay. What about you Ms Wilson?"

"It's Karev too. Why do you insist on calling me by my single name!?"She asked him back "Never mind, forget I asked. I don't know where I was exactly at that time. I was just wandering around for most of the day." She said and the detective wrote it "Do you think it will be possible to trace the call?" she spoke up making the detective take his eyes from his hand and bring them to hers.

"It will be _if, _the call wasn't made with a prepaid cellphone. Most likely it will turn out that it was made by one." he said accusing Jo with his eyes once again.

"For God's sake!" Jo snapped at him "Why don't you just say what you want to say? The silent communication that you are giving me with your eyes is getting a little bit ridiculous." She said and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Okay let's restart then. Where were you when your daughter called you husband? Where were you 'wandering around'?"

Jo started to explain to detective where she had been through her day meticulously, at least she thought. She told him every detail she could remember adding stuff she hadn't told Alex about, they were both listening to her until she said something that took Alex by surprise.

"You told me Izzie was blonde" he said it more like a question

"No I didn't, I told you I found her I never said what color her hair was" She answered him.

"Yes you did Jo. You told me you gave the paper to _a blonde _woman who turned out to be my ex-wife!"

"I said I gave the paper to the blonde woman that used to be your wife, because I remembered you saying she was blonde but-"

"So is Isobel Stevens blonde or brunette?" the detective asked them but the question was for Jo since Alex hadn't seen her in years so he had no idea how she looked like.

"She used to be blonde, but her hair is as dark as mine now." She answered the detective.

"What did you do after you met her?"

"We talked about Camilla mostly and then she told me she had to go, gave me her card and left."

"Where is the card?" he asked her.

"It's in my purse." She said getting up to take her purse from the kitchen island and returned to the living room with it. She started to look for it, after a while her brows started frowning, and she throw all items that were in her purse on top of the center table. "It was right here, I swear!"

"No card then…" he wrote down on his notepad.

"When will you stop doubting everything I say?!" she yelled at him again.

"When you start be cooperative and tell the truth!" he told her. Alex eyes shift from Jo to detective Morgan and then he turned back to Jo. He was feeling confused and left out because of the confrontation that was going between his wife and the detective. _What does he mean by saying the truth? What is he talking about? _Before he could say that out loud Jo started to speak.

"What do you mean? I have been telling you the truth for the last twenty-four hours."

"When did you meet Mia Roberts?" The detective asked her

"I NEVER DID!" She yelled at him throwing her hand in the air. Alex considered stopping the detective from asking any more questions but something within in told him to wait and find out what the detective meant by telling Jo to tell the truth.

"We both know that is not true." He said rolling the chair closer to the center table that was separating them "We just want to understand why she says she met you, okay?" he said with a calmer voice. Jo put her elbows on her tights and placed her head inside of her hands "I know you have a reasonable motive for not telling me before…" they heard a sniff and a second later Jo was crying and sobbing, her shoulders were moving up and down and all her body was shaking. Alex tried to put his arms around her but Jo pulled away from his attempt.

"I just feel so guilty…" she said through a sob without looking up still hiding her face from them

"Why? It wasn't your fault." Alex said

"No, you don't understand. I… I lied." She said and finally took her hands from her face and looked at them, when she met Alex eyes she started to cry again, "I am so sorry Alex…" Alex shook his head unbelievingly, having the worst-case scenario going through his mind, it all came back, all the thoughts he had had earlier about his wife were coming back and this time he wasn't feeling guilty for having them it was only making him angry that Jo had lied to him about something related to their daughter missing.

"Okay, let's started again. From the beginning." Detective Morgan said "What happened after your shift ended at the hospital?"

"I… I left" she inhaled deeply and let go trying to calm herself "I left the hospital and went to the daycare."

"What are you saying?" Alex asked "Where is my daughter Jo?"

"No, no, no I did-"

"What have you done?" Alex asked, his voice trembling and his heart beat so hard that he thought it would break his ribs and come out of his chest "What have you done Jo" he asked again and his voice came out as a whisper.

"Okay, okay. I went there to pick her up but she was sleeping. I was going to bring her to the hospital and we were going to wait for you until your shift ended, but that girl, Mia, told me she was sleeping." She said looking at Alex "She told me she had been there for only an hour so she didn't know who Camilla was. I showed her my ID and… and she verified if I was allowed to pick her up because she didn't know me."

"Just tell me you have her Jo... Tell me that you took her somewhere and that she is safe… You meant what you said earlier, didn't you? When you told me you drove to the mysterious place where you are keeping her." He asked her putting his head on his hands, waiting for the answer he knew she was going to give him.

"Let me continue, please. After she did it we went to her classroom and she wasn't there, I thought you had picked her up and I was about to leave when I remembered that she normally takes her nap around three. So we went to where they put the kids to sleep and… and she was there lying in a bed peacefully asleep, I didn't want to wake her up to wait until you were done, so I told that girl that I'd be back later. I didn't even remembered asking her name…" she said in tears.

"Did you or did you not go back there?" the detective asked her

"I should have taken her to the hospital with me but I left her there. I went back to the hospital where I got stuck at I swear. I swear I didn't take her Alex, you have to believe me" she said trying to reach his hand which he pulled away making Jo's insides ache. "Alex…?"

"Well, you have been swearing a lot of things that aren't true lately." He said and got up leaving a crying Jo on the living room.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Twos days had passed since Jo and Alex talked to Detective Morgan at their house. The couple hadn't been able to have a normal conversation without ending up screaming at each other, the more they tried to get to each other the more they crashed apart, everything seemed to be falling apart slowly between them. The detective had called them in the afternoon informing them to go to the police station to watch the security tapes they had gotten from the hospital. They went there having a silent contest in the car and came back the same way.

"How did it go?" Jane asked Jo kneeled on the floor while packing her luggage to go back to California where she lived "Your face is telling me it didn't go that well, did it?"

"No" Jo said shaking her head and walking inside of the bedroom to sit on the bed "It was a disaster, but I think I can take it, comparing it to everything else… Alex believes me less each passing minute. My daughter's fourth birthday is two freaking days and we don't know where she is… Every single person says 'The mother did it, can you believe it?' I actually heard that in there."

"I'm sorry. I can postpone the meeting and stay longer if you need me to." Jane said putting her hand on Jo's right knee and squeezing it.

"No, no, it's okay. Thank you. You need any help with that?" Jo asked pointing to the clothes that were on the floor.

"No, I'm almost done. So what did they say there?"

"Well, you know Camilla was taken around 4:13 pm." Jo said and Jane nodded at her "Well…I was 'caught on camera' leaving the hospital at 4:03 and only returned to the hospital like forty minutes later or so, and they really do think that I took my child out of the daycare and brought her here and someone finished the rest of the 'job'."

"Jo I know that you are beyond pissed her helpless and that you are trying to disguise that but you can't keep acting like the way you are right know." Jane scolded her due the fact that Jo was making air quotes and talking weirdly "I do get you because I do the same when I'm upset, but other people don't, and if you keep doing this it will get harder and harder for you to be believable."

"Are you saying that you don't believe me either?" Jo asked pretending to be shocked with what her sister had told her

"See? You are doing it again! It is okay if you break down a little, you don't have to put this fake wall in front of you. Your daughter is missing for Christ sake! Be sad, cry a little, yell, whatever but just stop pretending that everything is okay." Jane said raising her voice at each new word that was coming out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry. This is just too much. Are you done?" she asked pointing to her sister's luggage that appeared packed.

"Yes, let's go." Jane answered getting up and they both walked downstairs. Jane said her goodbye to Alex and left the house telling Jo that she'd be waiting for her outside, jo gave her the keys so that Jane could get inside of the car.

"Alex?" she said standing in front of him while he was watching the news.

"Jo..." he said pushing her a little aside so that he could keep an eye on what was going on the TV

"Look at me." She demanded "You don't actually believe it do you?"

"Believe what?" he said giving up of trying to push her away and looking at her in her eyes.

"That I would actually do what they say I did, do you?"

"No Jo. I don't" he answered her but not with a voice that convinced her.

"Oh, you don't? Goodbye Alex!" she said and stormed out of the living room and walked towards the front door to their house with anger filling every single cell of her body.

"You can go… I won't bother you by calling you or something if you take more than seven hours to come back." He yelled from the living room and Jo take her hand from the doorknob.

"Oh I'll make it easier for you. I won't even come back. I'll be staying at the other house." She said and got out slamming the door behind her.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey look who is home…" Mia told Camilla, who was laying on the couch watching TV while fighting a battle with her eyes to keep them open, as she heard the door to the house getting open. Camilla got up yawning and started walking towards the door to see who was there. When Camilla saw her, she began walking faster almost running.

"Mom!" she said throwing her arms onto the open wide arms that were waiting for her hug. "Hi mommy" she said pulling her head from the woman's shoulder and looking into her eyes.

"Hi baby girl…," she said kissing the girl allover her face "I missed you so much" she said and then she noticed that Camilla's hair was a few shades lighter than the last time she had seen her, almost a fading blonde.

"Why did you not come back yesterday?"

"Oh baby I'm so sorry… I had to work." She said wiping the tears that were falling from Camilla's eyes from her cheeks "Mommy has to fix some things then I'll stay with you every minute of every day. I promise."

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"I want to go home" the little girl said whimpering.

"We are home baby, this is our new home." The woman said rubbing Camilla's cheek with her thumb.

"No it's not. I don't like it in here," she said sobbing and wiping her own tears at the same time, "I want to go to our home where Daddy is too" The woman got up from her squatting position holding Camilla against her chest.

"That home, with Daddy doesn't exist anymore." The woman said rubbing the girl's back up and down as the little girl placed her cheek on the woman's shoulder.

"Why?"

"One day when you are a little bit more grown up I will tell you why, okay?" she explained and Camilla nodded against her shoulder as an answer. The woman started walking towards the living room with Camilla, as they entered the living room the confusion that was in there stopped the woman in her track.

"Hi…" Mia greeted her following the woman's eyes that were exploring the living room "I know, I have a good reason for this"

"Have you guys been camping in here?" the woman asked looking around at the amount of blankets and pillows that were everywhere in that living room.

"Well, kind of. She was crying terribly when I put her down to bed that day when you left and I thought that she would choke herself if I left her like that, so I brought her down here and we've been sleeping here ever since." She explained putting her hand on her hips, "I'm sorry I didn't know when you would come back…"

"It's okay, you did the right thing. We can risk her needing to go to a hospital, at least not yet." The woman acknowledged. "I'm going to put her down to bed." She said when she noticed that Camilla was already halfway asleep on her embrace "I'll be right back"

"Okay, I will make us something to eat." Mia said and went to the kitchen as the other woman went upstairs to lay Camilla down because it was already past her bedtime. As she tried to lay her down, the child began to cry so the woman decided to lay down with her while waiting for her to would eventually fall asleep.

"Mommy, you and Daddy didn't hear me calling out for you today?" the little girl asked as she started to close her eyes again "I called out for you, but you didn't hear me…"

"Sweetie is this sleep talking or Camilla talking?" the woman asked her.

"Me" Camilla answered and yawned, "I saw you earlier"

"When? And where?" the woman asked pulling Camilla away from her embrace slowly to look at the child making her reopen her eyes. "When did you see us?"

"I don't know. We had already ate lunch and snacks and then I wanted to go out to play in the park, but Mia said we couldn't go out and then I got sad." She started to explain the story to the woman, who was paying attention to each word that was coming out of Camilla's mouth "And then she told me to not get sad and we playing inside. We built a fort like the one Daddy does sometimes. Then she said that we needed to go somewhere and we met a nice lady, the nice lady gave me cookies," Camilla said and smile at that memory.

"You had a filled day today. So what happened next?" the woman asked eagerly trying to camouflage her impatience to find out the end of Camilla's day summary.

"Next we… we fed the nice lady's fishie and then Mia said we needed to come back to here because it was getting late. Then when we were leaving, I saw you and Daddy getting out of the car and then I screamed Daddy but he didn't hear me so I called out Mommy and you didn't hear me too. I did it two times then Mia put me in her car and we came here. I told Mia that I wanted to be with you but she said I could not say anything about seeing you." Camilla finished her story and yawned.

"I'm sorry we didn't hear you…" the woman said pulling Camilla closer to her body again and hugging her.

"Mommy… I don't want you to leave today," the child whispered with her eyes closed before she fell asleep.

"I won't" she said and kissed Camilla on the top of her head. "I will be here when you wake in the morning." She laid there rubbing Camilla's back until she was sure that she was peacefully asleep and left the room.

"You took her _out_? _And_ you dyed her hair?" the woman said through clenched teeth as she entered the kitchen once she didn't find Mia in the living room "You _left_ this house with her? Are you crazy?"

"I…I…" the young woman stuttered and then swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat "I had to-"

"YOU HAD TO WHAT?!" the woman blew out and then soothed her voice as she remembered that Camilla was sleeping and she didn't want to wake the child up "Do you have any idea of how dangerous it is to do that?"

"I'm sorry but I had to. You know my mother needs me sometimes and I couldn't call you or anybody else to stay with her…" she said with apologetic eyes.

"Out of the places you could have taken her, you take her to see her to Seattle? What if Alex had seen her?"

"He didn't! I am one hundred percent positive that he didn't. I'm sorry…It won't happen again."

"You are damn sure that it won't! You DON'T EVER take my daughter out of here without my permission!"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**August 2019**

"_Daddy, Daddy can I ask something?" Camilla said running towards her father and jumping up for Alex to catch her_

"_Yes you can" he answered and then kissed her on her cheek._

"_Are the clouds made of cotton or paper?" the little girl asked with the most serious look on her face._

"_Cotton. Fluffy cotton." He said not knowing how to answer his daughter._

"_So why the clouds are white if the cotton candy is not?" Alex looked at Jo, who was recording their scene at the park, for help. Jo giggled and shook her head at him "I think they are made of paper."_

"_Oh really?" Alex asked "Why is that?"_

"_Because the paper is white too." She said and took off running to the playground where she had come from._

"_Oh stop laughing at me…" Alex told Jo giggling, "What should I tell her? That clouds are made of water?"_

"_Yes. I would have loved to know what her next question would be."_

"_She would probably ask if we drink clouds then." Alex said and then turned to look at their daughter "Who is that woman she is talking to?" _

"_I don't know." Jo answered, "Camilla, come here." She called for their daughter; the child did as she was told to, she ran to her parents and then sat in front of them._

"_What are the rules for the park?" Her father asked her pulling her onto is lap _

"_I can't talk to strangers and I can't go far away from your sight." She answered after gulping from her pink drinking bottle._

"_Why were you talking to that woman over there?" Jo asked her_

"_I thinked she-"_

"_Thought." Alex interrupted her to correct her spelling mistake._

"_I thought she was you when I was at the playground but then she wasn't you, Mommy." _

"_Oh… You don't know your silly head Mommy anymore?" Jo asked ruffling the child's hair and then tickling her causing their daughter to laugh._

"_Daddy who painted the clouds?"_

"_Okay… it's time to go home." Alex said to his girls and they both nodded their head at him._

* * *

Alex was left alone, with no Camilla nor Jo, pondering what to and never finding answers to that, his life was spiraling down endlessly. All of the control he had was slipping away. All of his emotions had drained out and turned into a desperate rage, he found himself constantly breaking down and breaking stuff. He realized he was becoming helpless with each passing day without his daughter. Friday had come and Camilla had been gone for a week now. His life was great; it was perfect, everything was right until a week ago. Everything, every little detail of his life had drastically changed in a course of a week. Camilla was gone and Jo was slowly fading away too. One week had passed since he last saw his daughter, the day after would be a week since he last heard her voice, even if was not in person, he knew she was okay at that point but what about now? He had no idea if she was still okay. He dread every single day the thought of her daughter possibly be dead. Jo had left him on Monday night and returned the next afternoon only to leave again. She told him she was staying at their second house because she needed to be away from their home for a little or she would break down to the point of no return and that their home was making her lose control little by little, she didn't feel right in there, she needed a bit of space. They hardly ever went to that house; it was more like a house for a getaway when one of them needed a little bit of space from the other. Alex had placed a box of homemade videos in their living room and was watching them over and over again for the need to be reconnected with his daughter, until he would eventually fall asleep.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Mia, calm down. I can't understand what you are trying to say!" the woman she to the other line of the call "What's going on?" all she could hear was Mia crying desperately and taking heavy breaths "Mia!" she screamed.

"She… she… I just…" she breathed in and out again "I turned my back to her for one second only and within a second she was lying on the floor."

"Mia, what are you trying to say?" the woman asked with fear on her voice "What happened?"

"She fell and hit her head on the center table." Mia said through sobs, "I don't know what to do."

"Is she okay? Is she breathing?" the woman asked but got no response "MIA! Is my daughter okay"

"She is breathing but… but she is unconscious."

"Bring her in here now, pull yourself together and bring her here right now."

"I can't take her to the hospital. What if I'm caught?"

"This is my child we are talking about, you better bring her in here Mia." The woman said and then let go a breath she did not know she had been holding "Just, please, bring her here, I'll know what to do, you won't get caught, okay? _Please_ Mia. Please. I cannot lose her. Not again."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Alex once again fell asleep sitting on his living room floor with his back against the couch, the doorbell ring woke him up from his sleep, he got up and walked to get the door while rubbing the sleepiness off his face. When he open up his door he was shocked to see who was there, she looked different, a lot different , but it was her he knew it for sure. He would have never forget that person.

"Oh… Alex! I didn't…" she started "I thought this was Mer's house."

"_You told me Izzie was blonde" he said it more like a question_

"_No I didn't, I told you I found her I never said what color her hair was" She answered him._

"_Yes you did Jo. You told me you gave the paper to a blonde woman who turned out to be my ex-wife!"_

"_I said I gave the paper to the blonde woman that used to be your wife, because I remembered you saying she was blonde but-"_

"_So is Isobel Stevens blonde or brunette?" the detective asked them but the question was for Jo since Alex hadn't seen her in years so he had no idea how she looked like._

"_She used to be blonde, but her hair is as dark as mine now."_

"Alex?" Izzie said snapping him out of his flashback.

"Izzie. Hi, I'm sorry I… You… You are brunette." He said "How are you? Come in?" he said and stepped aside so she could come in to his house and then closed the door once she was inside. She stood not far from the door waiting for him to direct her where to go next. He walked past her pointing for them to go to the kitchen and se followed behind him. Once they got there, he asked her to take a sit at the kitchen table. "Can I get you a coffee?"

"Yes sure, thank you." Izzie answered, "I'm so sorry for everything that is going on in your life right now… Alex, how are you doing?" She asked but Alex didn't answer her he just limited himself by getting the coffee done. When the coffee was done, he poured it into two mugs and handed one to Izzie as he sat in the sit in front of her.

"I'm… I don't know. I'm hanging in there I guess." He answered her question after a little and shrugged his shoulders "How are you?"

"I'm fine. Are you still living in here with Meredith?" She asked looking around at the kitchen that once was familiar to her and now was completely modified.

"No, I bought the house from her. It's just me, Jo and our daughter now… I mean it used to be." He said and look down at the table. Not knowing what to say or what to do Izzie just looked at him with sorrowful eyes and they stayed in silence for a little until Alex broke it "Jo told me she met you…"

"Yes. I did meet at 5th avenue last week." She said nodding her head and then took a sip of her coffee "I saw you guys on TV, and I immediately recognized her. How is she?"

"She is okay. So… a kid uh?" he asked her changing the subject. Izzie looked puzzled at him not knowing right away what he was talking about "Jo told me you have a daughter…"

"Oh! Yes, yeah I have a daughter. Abby, her name is Abigail." She said smiling.

"I didn't… I mean I would never thought that you would adopt someday…," he said smiling at her too "How was it? The adoption process?"

"Why would she be adopted?" she asked looking puzzled again, "She isn't adopted. She is mine. I gave birth to her."

"Oh, I'm sorry I just assumed because yo-"

"I know, Alex. It's okay." She said with a small smile. "It happened. I got pregnant when I wasn't expecting to."

"Are you happy?" he asked her after finishing his coffee.

"Yes, she is my happiness. I wasn't thrilled at first when I found out I was pregnant neither when she was born because she would constantly remind me that she was the only thing I had left from-" she cut herself realizing what she was about to say "Yes she makes me happy"

Alex noticed the look she had on her face and feared for what he was about to ask his ex-wife. "How… how old is she, Izzie?" Alex phone started ringing on the living room and got up to answer it, before he left the kitchen he gave one last look to Izzie "I'll be right back, don't go anywhere." Izzie, without being able to say something nodded her head at him and swallowed hard the lump that had formed on her throat.

_Oh my god, what did I just do?_ Izzie thought to herself, _he cannot know!_ A few minute had passed and Izzie was pondering to leave without letting Alex know, when she decided she would do it Alex entered the kitchen again with a death expression on his face.

"Izzie can you give me your number?" he said with a voice that indicated that he was about to cry, he cleared his throat and then spoke again "We can't finish this conversation right now, but we will. Give me your card, please" he asked.

She nodded while taking a card where her contacts information were and handed it to him. "I'm sorry, I really need you to leave now." He said and turned around walking back to his living room to call Jo, expecting that Izzie would find her way out. Izzie gathered her things and made her way towards the door passing through the living room and watching him talk on the phone with somebody.

"Goodbye Alex…" she whispered and left.

Alex heard the sound of the door being closed and stopped talking to hear what Jo was saying on the other line.

"Jo, I really need you to come back home now. I… I can't do this without you. You need to come now." He said walking back and forward on his living room, "We have to go there together for her. She needs us. Camilla needs us, not just me and I can't do this alone, Jo." He pleaded with tears streaming down on his face.

"I'll meet you there, Alex. I'm on my way, it isn't her. It isn't our baby."

With every single phone call Alex got, he hoped it would be the one to inform them that their daughter was found. But never, not even once did he thought that he would get the '_We need you to identify a body_' call.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

* * *

"Alex?" April called out for her friend after spotting him by the elevators "What are you doing here?" she asked

"I really don't have the time to explain it…" Alex answered with his voice cracking "Come one…" he whispered to the elevator, looking up to see which floor it was at.

"Alex… Are you okay? Is Jo okay? You're not supposed to be in here." April said putting her hand on Alex's shoulder, which made him turn around and look at her "Oh my God…" she said when she noticed the tears that were forming in Alex's eyes "Have they...? Did they find her?"

"I know this is going to sound really bad but I…I…" he took a deep breath and then sighed letting the tears fall "I hope they didn't." as he finished saying that the elevator door opened and he got on it leaving April looking at him perplexed.

Alex leaned his head on the elevator sidewall and closed his eyes sighing. _Oh, God please don't let it be her. It cannot be her._He opened his eyes as the elevator door dinged and opened, stepping out of it he saw Jo sitting in one of the benches that were on the floor he thought he would have never have to go to in his living time. The sound of his steps walking to the direction of the benches made Jo turn her head around and face him, when their eyes met Alex froze on his track.

"…Alex" Jo said standing up and walking fast to where her husband was standing. When she reached him, she threw her arms around his body; Alex immediately wrapped his arms tight around her reciprocating her hug. They both stood there for what seemed years, holding each other and releasing the amount of anguish they had felt for those seven days they spent without their daughter.

"Mr. and Mrs. Karev?" they heard Dt. Morgan's voice coming from behind Alex and Jo saw him first since she could see what was behind Alex. The both let go of each other and turned to look to the detective. "I'm so sorry for having to bring you here, but it is the protocol."

"Are you sure it's her" Alex asked him with tears in his eyes "It can be somebody else, right?"

"The body was found this morning in Waverly Beach. It had been underwater for approximately four days which makes-" Jo interrupted the detective as she lost the strength on her knees and didn't fall because Alex grabbed her before she could hit the floor.

"Do we have to go in there right now?" Alex asked. While Jo cried uncontrollably on his arms.

"No. Take your time." The detective answered comprehending the situation that the couple was facing "Go in when you are ready. Excuse me" he excused himself and left.

"I can't go in there, Alex…" Jo said as they were both walking to the benches so they could sit down for a little, "I'm sorry, but I… I just can't." she said and he kissed her on her temple comforting her "What if it is her?"

"It isn't." he said trying to sooth her and himself at the same time

"How can you be so sure?"

"I just feel it. She is still alive, I know it and you should too." He said and Jo looked up to meet his eyes.

"Can I stay here?" she begged him "I can't go in there…" he closed his eyes and nodded. They stood there in silence not noticing time passing until Detective Morgan showed up thirty minutes later interrupting their moment. Alex sighed, knowing it was time to get in that room, and got up to get inside. Jo was left in that hallway alone with the detective, neither of them wanted to break the silence between them but Jo could sense that the Detective was looking at her and whenever she looked at him, he would take his eyes off her.

"If you want to say something just say it already," she said, "Whatever accusations you want to do to me. Whatever it is, just say it."

"I don't want to accuse you of anything, Mrs. Karev."

"Then what do you want? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I would like to make an apology." He said and Jo could see that he was being honest and caring, for once, about their situation "About the way I have treated you. I was only following the leads we had from the case, and for that I would like to apologize."

"Saying sorry won't bring my daughter back." She said and turned her head to where Alex was coming from. Jo tried to get up but she felt a sharp pain on her lower abdomen that made her stay still where she was sitting. Alex entered the hallway crying and Jo could immediately tell those tears were from relief, she ignored the physical pain she was feeling, like she had been doing since she had woken up, and got up hugging him when he reached her. He picked his head up form Jo's shoulder, and looked in her eyes for a little before he started to speak.

"It isn't her." He sighed after saying that, looked at the detective, and repeated the same thing he had said to his wife. Alex was relieved that that body did not belong to their daughter but at the same time, he felt truly sorry for that girl's family and was only praying for their daughter's case not end up like that one. After talking to the detective and watching him give instructions to the morgue people, the three of them direct themselves to the elevator. Detective Morgan pushed the bottom to go to main floor and Alex and Jo went to the furthest wall of the elevator.

"Hey, are you okay?" Alex asked his wife after noticing that she was constantly closing her eyes with a pained face and putting her hand on her lower stomach, grasping it.

"Yeah. Just cramping." She answered with her eyes still closed. The elevator's doors dinged just in time as Jo's pains subsided and Jo opened her eyes.

"Oh... hi" Izzie's voice filled the silence that was in the elevator as she got in there with an grumpy child following closely behind her with her arms crossed on her chest.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" the detective asked Izzie, making both Alex and Jo look puzzled between their interactions.

"You two know each other? Why didn't you say it sooner, like a few days ago when I was trying to say that she wasn't blonde?" Jo said with annoyance filling her voice.

"You were referring to her?" he asked and suddenly connect the pieces "Oh... it didn't occurred me at the time that you were talking about my fiancée. I didn't connect the tipoffs."

"You two are...How?" Alex chocked on his words trying to organize his thoughts to formulate a question "I'm confused..."

"I'm confused too" the blue-eyed caramel haired girl spoke making the adults turn and look at her as a response.

"Abby!" Izzie scolded her and then looked back at Alex slowly, fearing that he had already figured it out.

"What? I really am confused, Mom." The girl insisted.

"I'm sorry," the detective started "This is our daughter, Abigail."

"Hi." The girl greeted Alex and Jo with a smile that she immediately dropped to speak again "And he is not really my d-"

"Ahhh" Jo interrupted Abigail screaming and bending over in pain while clutching her stomach.

"Oh my god!" Izzie exclaimed as she looked at Jo and saw the blood dripping down her legs.

The doors to the elevator opened up on the main floor and Alex tried to move Jo out but it was only causing her to suffer more pain and scream. Jo's screams caught the attention of April who was standing closer to the elevator. As April got in the elevator, Detective Morgan pulled both Izzie and Abby out of the elevator and the doors closed once again. Inside of it, Jo kept flinching in pain every single time she tried to stand up.

"We need to take her to OB/GYN," April told Alex who just nodded at her without taking his eyes off Jo "Jo, are you pregnant?" Jo shook her head not sure of the answer for that question, "How long have you been experiencing pains?"

"Since I woke up this morning." She answered, "Oh God, I think something has ruptured inside me..." Jo said and fainted.

"JO?" Alex said and shook her but got no response from Jo "April, I can't feel her pulse" he said after pressing his fingers against his wife neck. From the OB/GYN Jo was rushed into an emergency surgery after they discovered what was causing Jo to bleed and feel in pain. The seconds had turned into minutes and the minutes had turned into hours, Alex was sitting on the waiting room after walk back and forth around the area when the doctor that had lead Jo's surgery entered the waiting room.

"How is she?" he asked fearfully getting up.

"Your wife was having an ectopic pregnancy; the fetus was located on her right fallopian tube and it grew to an extend that made the tube rupture."

"Please tell me she is okay..." Alex begged the doctor

"We had to remove the affected tube. She lost a lot of blood but we were able to replace it. She is going to be okay. She is in the recovery room, you can see her if you want to."

"Thank you. Thank you" Alex said hugging the doctor and rushed to the recovery room to be with his wife.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

A month had passed since Jo had left the hospital, after staying there for five days. She and Alex were told that there was nothing else that could be done in order to find their daughter the day after Jo was operated. Alex started to look for Camilla on the park where the body was found at, the day after they received the Detective's news, but had no luck; no one had seen his child around there. Jo was told to rest for at least five days before she could start doing any demanding activities and after her bed rest, she joined Alex in the search of their daughter which had no results. They too were running out of options and hope of ever finding her. They were both lying in bed on each other's arms. Jo had her head nestled on Alex's chest when Alex felt his chest getting wet from Jo's tears.

"Hey..." he whispered and Jo immediately wiped her eyes "It's okay. You can cry..." he said and kissed the top of her head.

"This is all my fault..." she said through her sobs.

"Stop thinking like that honey." He said and rubbed her back to sooth her.

"I should have taken her out of there when I could..."

"You couldn't have known." Alex said and Jo didn't say anything else. The room was filled with her crying noises as she kept releasing the pain she was feeling, but there was nothing that ever be done to free her forever from that pain. After her crying subsided, she lifted her head from Alex's chest and looked at him for a couple of seconds before he bent down to press his lips against hers and kissed her softly. After they pulled apart, Jo replaced her head on her husband's chest once again.

"I have something to tell you..." they both said at the same time and sadly laughed at each other.

"You go first." Alex asked her.

"I... I..." Jo started and then sighed for not being able to form the words to say what she wanted to say. "I knew I was pregnant" she admitted and shut her closed tightly swallowing a lump that had formed on her throat. Alex didn't say anything, he just held her tighter and she knew what he was asking for. He wanted her to continue, "I was going to tell you on her birthday... I found out the day she went missing. After I left the daycare, I saw a shirt saying Big Sister on that little store in front of the hospital and I went there to buy it and I was going to give her as a birthday present..."

"Did you buy it?" he asked her.

"Yes, but then... then someone took our baby and I didn't want to have another one without her being around, so I thought if I didn't think about it too much it'd go away. I ignored it and it went away..."

"Jo, it wasn't your fault either. This baby was never going to be born, you had an ectopic pregnancy."

"But..."

"Shh... I think Abigail is my daughter..." he confessed.

"What? How? Why?" Jo lifted her head up from his chest and started to sit up taking the blankets with her to cover herself with them.

"Have you looked at her?" Alex said looking at his wife eyes and then sitting up too "She looks old enough to be mine and Izzie's child, but that just not it. I could see myself in her..."

"Oh God. What are you going to do?" She asked him.

"I don't know..." he said shrugging his shoulder.

"Don't feel bad for me Alex... You have to know if she is your child too and will go on from there" Alex took Jo's right hand on his squeezing it "Now let's get up... we still have a long day ahead of us" she said and then he took her hand to his mouth to kiss it

"I love you, Jo"

"I love you too." she said with her closed and losing another tear.

**XXXXXXXXX**

"How is she?" the woman asked Mia on the phone since she wasn't able to pass by the house they were staying at.

"She is... Fine, I guess." Mia answered after looking at Camilla who was doing a puzzle on the center table. "She's a little bit grumpy today but she's fine."

"Can you put her on the phone?"

"Yes, sure" Mia said and walked to Camilla and then kneeled besides her "Hey sweetie, your mom wants to talk to you..." she said handing Camilla the phone but Camilla pushed Mia's hand away from her refusing to speak to that woman "What's wrong? Don't you want to talk to your mom?" Mia asked her.

"No..." Camilla said shaking her head and still focusing on finishing her puzzle "No. Stop it." She whined for Mia trying to hand her the phone once again. "I don't want it."

Mia sighed and stood up "I don't know if you heard but she apparently doesn't want to talk to you."

"Put me on speaker, please" the woman asked Mia. Mia did what she was told to and put the phone on the table

"Hi baby" the woman said and Camilla looked annoyed at Mia and crossed her arms on her chest in response "How are you? Are you mad at mommy?"

"Yes." She said with her arms still crossed and with her face scrunched.

"Why? Mommy is sorry she hasn't come to see you yet... will you please forgive me?" She asked but got no response from the little girl "Please, pretty please?

"Okay... Mommy?" she accepted the woman's apology and uncrossed her arms

"Yes baby?"

"When are you coming home?" the little girl asked and the woman smiled on the other line of the call for the fact that Camilla was now calling the house they were staying at 'home'

"Oh honey, Mommy doesn't know yet. Soon I'll be home."

"Can't you come home today?" Camilla whined with tears staring to form on her eyes.

"No baby, I'm so sorry I can't."

"Well, then I don't want to talk to you ever again..." she said crying, then stormed out of the living with her arms crossed once again and started going up the stairs.

"I'm sorry" Mia said, "She'll come around eventually."

"I'm messing this all up with her... again." The woman said and then sighed.

"Well, don't you feel a little bad at all? Not even a tiny bit?"

"About what?"

"I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep this up" Mia said shaking her head at herself.

"Mia, don't you dare. She is mine and they will not take her away from me again."

"Do you even hear yourself?" she asked the woman cynically "She is just a kid. She should not be kept captivated. She _needs_ her parents!"

"She has me. I am her parent. I'm just taking care of some stuff and then I will be there for her." The woman said nervously afraid of what Mia could do.

"You don't get it, do you? You know what happened a few nights ago?" Mia asked laughing angrily "I was at the kitchen serving our dinner and came running from the living room _crying in panic_ and she told me that she couldn't remember her daddy's voice." Mia said and then she wiped a tear that had fallen from her left eye.

"That's good, right? That she is forgetting about Alex."

"Oh my god you're sick," Mia said with disgust lacing her voice "I got to go. Goodbye." She said and hung up the call. She picked Camilla's blanket that was lying on the couch and went upstairs with it. She entered Camilla's new bedroom and found the little girl laying on her tummy with her face buried on her crossed arms. She sat on the bed next to Camilla and rubbed her back, which made the little girl turn her head to Mia showing her her wet eyes.

"Look what I got for you," Mia said showing the girl her blanket, which she took out of Mia's hand and thanked her for it. "Don't be sad, okay?" she pleaded Camilla and the girl nodded her head after sitting up on her bed.

"I wish mommy and daddy were here..." Camilla said looking down at her lap "Why they don't want me anymore?", she took her eyes from her lap to look at Mia's. Mia's heart broke for the pain that the little girl was going through and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Oh baby, they do. They do want you and they do love you so much and they always will" she comforted Camilla with her words and rubbed her back up and down while saying them. "Look at me" she said putting her hands and both side of Camilla's face "I know sometimes it might not feel like it but your mommy and your daddy will always love you and they will always be safeguarded right in here" she pointed at Camilla's heart "Okay?"

"Okay." Camilla responded, and then positioned her arms around Mia's neck, and hugged her. "Can we go outside, please?"

"Yes, sure let's go to the park, shall we?"

They got ready for the trip they were going to make and got in the car. Camilla was over her little heartbreak and kept talking all the way from her new house to the park. After almost half an hour of driving they reached they destiny and entered the Houghton Neighborhood Park in Kirkland. They stablished their rules, Mia put some sunscreen on Camilla's body and after that, she was free to enjoy herself for a while in the park. Mia sat under a tree to protect herself from the sunny day and picked up the book she had brought from the house to read it. Mia would take her eyes from the book every once in a while to watch out after Camilla. The park was crowded; there were a lot of kids running around and parents everywhere. Camilla was on the playground playing with the other kids that she had made friends with and having a great time.

"How old are you?" a girl she had just started playing with asked her.

"Four." Camilla answered all proud of herself

"I'm nine. My name is Abby. What is yours?" Abby asked her.

"Skye" Camilla responded with her middle name because Mia had asked her to.

"Okay." They kept playing, laughing and running after each other, Abby present Camilla to her nanny that was with her at the park and made the nanny take a picture of them both before she had to leave. After they had said their goodbye, Camilla started walking to Mia when she saw a familiar face. She gasped and ran to that person with a smile on her face. When she reach that someone she placed her arms around their waist from the back and said hi with delight.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

_**November 2019**_

"_David, go get your sister and your cousin, please. "Elaine Schmidt asked her oldest grandkid who was nearest from the bench she was sitting at while she was fixing the other boy's outfit, getting ready to head to the Schmidt's house in Clyde Hill where she and the kids were staying since the Karev's house was being remodeled._

_It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, even though it was just a few days from Thanksgiving, so she decided to take her four grandchildren to the park to get some air. Her son and his wife had taken a little break from the kids along with Alex and Jo, so she was in charge of taking care of them all, not that she really did mind, she loved it. David immediately spotted his sister and went to get her but had a hard time finding Camilla; he looked all around for her but just could not find her._

"_Grandma, I can't find Camilla..." he said holding his sister's hand as he approached her grandmother._

"_What do you mean? She is behind you." She said pointing behind the boy. David turned around surprise for seeing his cousin standing right there when he couldn't find her. They walked over to their car and David kept eyeing Camilla wondering where she had been._

"_Hey! Where were you?" he asked her after they entered their car and were all buckled up on their seats "I looked all over and didn't see you. Were you hiding?"_

"_No." she answered smiling, "I was with mommy."_

"_Were not." Sadie, her cousin, contradicted her._

"_Were too." She argued._

"_Your mom is not even here, Camilla. How were you with her?" David accused._

"_But she was at the park" she said now whimpering for being contradicted by both of her cousins._

"_Kids, leave your cousin alone," Mrs. Schmidt warned them "Sweetie, it's okay. Do you miss your mommy? Is that why you think you saw her at the park? It's just a few more days then she'll be here..."_

"_She was at the park, grandma. She tied my shoe."_

"_Okay, baby girl..." Mrs. Schmidt said ignoring that Camilla's shoes laces were actually tied._

_The days had passed with the same routine they had started the day the kids' parents left that include waking up, having breakfast, taking shower, playing, having lunch, playing a little more, throwing tantrums on napping time, waking up again, eating a snack, playing, eating dinner, another tantrum and then sleeping. Ryan, Sarah, Alex and Jo returned to the Schmidt's house with Jane her husband Chris and their two boys the night before thanksgiving and Jo's birthday. To their dismay, they found all of the four kids already asleep. They all greeted Mrs. Schmidt, the men went to hang out on the living room quiet to not wake the kids up, while Jane went to put her boys to bed too and then went to the kitchen to be with the women and help to cook the food for the night after that. The girls chitchat and laughed, Mrs. Schmidt sharing the kids' week without their parents._

"_How did she do?" Jo asked._

"_Poor child missed you so much, she was seeing you everywhere," Mrs. Schmidt informed Jo with a tiny smile on her face._

"_Aww my poor baby..." Jo said pouting and putting her hands on her heart._

"_I know, sweetheart, she missed a lot. She was so convinced she had spent the days with you." She said and they all chuckled "You should have seen her. But she only missed you... she apparently forgot she had a father"_

"_My poor little thing. She had never been this long without us... Now I want to wake her up and kiss all over her chubby face"_

_They chat all night long until it was time for them to go to bed. They all said their goodnights to and retrieved to bed. In the next morning, all of the grown-ups woke up before the kids and even though it was way after time for them to wake up, they just left the children sleep. Jo went to the bathroom upstairs and heard giggles coming from the girls' bedroom. She opened the door quietly and then closed it behind her and stood there until the girls noticed her presence. They both stood up from Sadie's bed were they had been sleeping in and ran to Jo hugging her and wishing her a happy birthday._

"_Mommy, Sadie says I didn't see you at the park the other day and that you didn't tie my shoe laces." Camilla informed her mother "But you were there and you tied my shoe laces."_

"_Of course, honey. Of course mommy was there" she told Camilla and then winked her eye at Sadie who nodded her head._

"_Told ya." Camilla told Sadie. "Where's daddy?"_

_They spent the day enjoying each other's company, laughing and recounting life events. The dinner went well. They all gave her thanks. Jo thanked for finding the family she never thought one day she would ever have._

* * *

"Who were you talking to for that long?" Alex asked Jo when she appeared in the kitchen.

"Nobody important and Elaine, she wanted us to know that she is at her son's and wants us to see us" she answered him.

"And who was the '_nobody important'_ that annoyed you that much?"

"It was just phones companies trying to make adhere their services... Same old, same old" she said rolling her eyes.

"Okay... So I called Izzie..." he started motioning his hand for her to sit down on the chair to the kitchen table.

"What did she say?" she asked receiving a plate of food Alex was giving her.

"She said she will be out of work in a couple hours then she'll pass by here... but she has to bring Abby with her... " he answered and she nodded her head understanding.

"Okay..." they ate their lunch practically in silence and after that Jo told Alex she had grocery shopping to do and left only returning a few minutes after Izzie and Abby arrival to their house. She greeted them both and the three of them moved to the kitchen, leaving Abigail in the living room watching cartoons, to talk in private without the little girl hearing what they were talking about. Izzie started to apologize to both of them and then explained how she found out she was pregnant with Abby and had returned to Seattle to tell Alex but he just sent her away without giving her a chance to tell him. She raised Abby by herself until two years ago when Abby was seven and she met Morgan. She apologized again for taking Alex away from his daughter's life and said she would understand if they didn't want anything to do with Abigail, which made them both go mad but were interrupted by Abby coming in into the kitchen with a framed picture of Camilla on her hand. They all stop their conversation and stared at the girl's hand.

"Is she my sister?" she asked the adults pointing at the girl on the picture. When they didn't answer her question she sighed and elaborated why she had asked that "Well... I know you are my dad." She said looking at Alex who only looked back at her "I heard mom and Will talking about how she wanted me to meet you, the other day" she explained.

"Oh my God, Abby" Izzie said shaking her head "You know better than eavesdropping!"

"I wasn't. You were just talking loud enough for me to hear it... is she?" she asked them but only looking at Alex.

"Yes, she is" he said after sighing and closing his eyes.

"Really?" she beamed "I met her today at the park and didn't even know I had a little sister. When is she coming here? Can I stay, mom?"

"What do you mean you met her at the park... today..?" Jo asked her slowly getting up

"Her name is Skye and she is four." Abby told them trying to prove she was right.

"This girl is Camilla, honey. Not Skye." Izzie told the girl pulling her towards her lap "Maybe you just met someone that looked alike her"

"Oh God" both Alex and Jo said at the same time, making both Abby and Izzie look at them.

"Where was this park, Abby?" Alex asked her.

"I don't know. My nanny took me there, why?" she answered and Alex balled his right hand into a fist and pounded the kitchen's table startling the girl

"Alex! I don't understand what is going on," Izzie said.

"Skye is her middle name." Jo responded.

**XXXXXXXX**

"Why did you hurt her?" Camilla asked Mia crying scared, while Mia walk up and down on the living room. Since Mia wasn't responding any of the girl's questions, Camilla just kept crying terrified of what she had witnessed. "I want daddy... Mia, I want to go home" Mia shook stopped pacing and squatted down to be at the same eye position as Camilla.

"Home? You want to go home?" she asked her laughing hysterically only scaring even more the child in front of her.

"Yes..." Camilla choked out between her sob "Yes, please. I want my dad"

"Yeah? Well, guess what? Home is gone." She whispered to the little girl stroking her cheek. Camilla stepped back and started screaming and crying, coughing every other time.

"I want daddy... Daddy?"

"STOP CRYING SKYLAR!" Mia yelled at her now grabbing her own her and shaking her head

"I'm not Skylar..." Camilla cried "I'm Camilla."

"Careful kid, Daddy isn't coming and you are going to choke yourself," The child only continued to cry and scream for her dad. "Hey! Where are you going? Get back in here!" Mia ordered her after Camilla started stepping away from her and reaching for the house door. Camilla shook her head at Mia and stood by the door breathing hard and opening her eyes wide when she noticed Mia coming closer and closer to her. "Oh don't be scared, sweet pie. I would never hurt you"

"Daddy..." she whispered crying for him "Blankie...Blankie"

"Oh baby, I'm sorry" Mia said going back into the living room to get Camilla's blanket. "I'm so sorry..." she said again turning into her normal self and handing Camilla her blanket, "I'm sorry baby, I didn't mean to" she pulled Camilla and hugged her to her body against the girl's will until Camilla stopped fighting and accepted Mia's embrace.

**xxxxxxxxx**

"Oh my god Stephanie. Are you okay?" Jo asked as soon as she and Alex did entered the hospital room Stephanie was staying at talking to the Detective who had called them to meet at the hospital. "What happened?"

"Why are you here?" Alex asked the Detective "I thought the case had been closed!"

"I know but Miss Edwards contacted me and asked me to be present while she talked to you"

"What is it, Steph?" Jo asked grasping her friend's hand.

"I had her, Jo I'm sorry." She said starting to shed some tears "I had her..."

"You had who? Camilla?" Alex asked and Stephanie nodded "Explain yourself Stephanie!"

"I was at Houghton Park in Kirkland... and she... and she... she was there too"

"Mind me if I ask what you were doing in Kirkland?" The detective asked

"I live there..."

"What the hell happened, Stephanie? Where is she?!" Alex yelled.

"I don't know, Alex. One minute she was with me and the next one, somebody woke me up and I drove here."

"What do you mean?" Jo asked.

"Jo? Did you take her?" Stephanie asked her best friend with an apologetic voice.

"What makes you say that?" the detective asked her once again.

"She saw me, and she... she hugged me from behind and when I turned around I couldn't believe that I was actually looking at her." She started "They died her hair blonder bur it was her I swear."

"Why isn't she here, Steph?" Alex asked her, after looking at Jo through the corner of hi eyes.

"I tried... I held her up on my arms and took her to the parking lot. When I put her down to look for my car' keys, she panicked and started saying she had to go back to the park. I think somebody hit me on my head and it all went black. But before that, I told her I would bring her to you guys but she refused by saying that she couldn't come and she just kept saying 'Mommy will be mad at me', she said it over and over until it all went black!" she said that and then looked at Jo.

They all did.

* * *

**A.N.: The**** first part in italics is a throwback to show that Camilla knew her kidnapper and had been with her several times before she was kidnapped. The rest of the chapter is set on current time which takes place a month and 12 days after Camilla's kidnap.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

**A.N.: Hello, first I would like to apologize for last chapter's first part being a bit confusing. For those who didn't understand it, it was a throwback to show that Camilla had been in contact and knew her kidnapper before she was taken away. And secondly I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who have been giving me support through this story. Enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review. Thank you xoxo**

* * *

"Jo?" Stephanie called out after Jo started getting up to leave the room "Jo, I'm so sorry..." Jo just ignored her and left "Alex, I tried. I really did," she said looking at Alex who was standing at the end of the bed; he just nodded and turned to leave too.

"Mr. Karev, may we have a word?" Alex heard the detective call his name and turned around.

"Yes, sure" he said.

"Excuse me Miss Edwards. Get well soon." The detective told Stephanie before they both left the room.

"What is it that you want to tell me?" Alex asked the detective irritated.

"Can we go somewhere more private?" Alex nodded to his question and they went to the boardroom. They found Owen Hunt there and asked him to give them some time in the room to talk which he did.

"Sit wherever you want" Alex said sitting down and Morgan sat in the chair in front of where Alex sat.

"How have you been?" He started

"As great as I have ever been and will ever be" Alex answered sarcastically, "Just cut all the crap and get straight to the point of this conversation."

"Fair enough." Morgan said in a low voice "Okay. Right now I want you to pretend that I'm not a detective, just think as me as a friend."

"Sure. Go ahead..." Alex said and sighed.

"I don't know if Izzie has told you already or not-"

"She has." He just answered without letting the detective finish what he was going to say.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" he asked thinking that Alex and him were both at the same page "She has less than five months left and she'll start to get more and more exhausted soon..."

"What are you saying? What's wrong with Abby?" Alex asked worried opening his eyes wide in fearing for the worst.

"Nothing." Morgan assured him "Nothing is wrong with Abigail, she is fine."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"I guess Izzie didn't really tell you..." he whispered

"Tell me what?"

"Izzie, she has been diagnosed with... um... bowel cancer" the detective stated and Alex closed his eyes not believing this was happening again.

"She didn't tell me anything about that... She only told me the truth about Abby..."

"That's something else I want to talk to you about..."

"No, that's not going to happen. You are not going to raise her if Izzie is not around" Alex affirmed, "My name is on Abigail's birth certificate. She even has my last name. How could you not tell us this at the very first time we met?" Alex asked in disbelief "You have known I'm her father since day one."

"I know... I figured you wouldn't want to do that..."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Alex asked him

"I didn't want to believe it. I thought you being her father had a chance of not being true, but I mean how many Alexander Karevs could be out there?"

"So you have been lying for all this time? What else have you lied about?" he dared him "Do you happen to know where my Camilla is? Cause if you do I swear to God..."

"No, no, no, Mr. Karev." Morgan said shaking his head "I wouldn't do that to anyone. That's illegal... and I would be risking my job and freedom" he assured Alex.

"You better not be lying... I'll find out if you are and it won't be pretty."

"So have you and your wife been?" he asked to start a new subject and Alex rolled his eyes "I mean, how has your relationship been?" he clarified.

"Why do you care?"

"Do you trust her one hundred percent?"

"I have answered that question before!" Alex burst out slamming his right fist on the table. "Why do you keep insisting on it?"

"Alex? Can I call you Alex?" Morgan asked him calmly.

"No. You can keep on calling me Mr. Karev."

"Okay then, Mr. Karev... You know she has done this before, it wouldn't be the first time."

"Who has done what before?" Alex asked confused

"Your wife. She has ran away with a child bef-" the detective started and got interrupted by Alex

"You don't know anything about my wife!" he spat out madly "You managed to pull that information out but not the reason behind it?" he said it but his statement came out more like a question "If you guys _had done _your job, Jo wouldn't have to do what she did."

"You are missing the point, Mr. Karev. The point is she has done it before... Why wouldn't she do it again?"

"Because nobody is MOLESTING her and my daughter on a daily basis!" Alex shouted at the detective "She has no reason to... That's my..." he said more calmly.

"That's your what?" Morgan asked after a few seconds of silence from Alex's part.

"That's my daughter..." he said with his voice breaking "She wouldn't take her away from me... Not Jo..."

"But there's something about her that is bugging you, right? You want to believe her but she keeps disclosing new information about the day your daughter went missing, am I right?" He asked and when Alex didn't answer he sigh "What did she disclosed this time?"

"I... I have to go." Alex said getting up and then left without looking back.

Alex was about to leave the hospital when he thought of going to the room Stephanie was staying at. When he got to Stephanie's room once again and found her asleep but he didn't care and woke her up anyway.

"Hey Alex..." Stephanie said with sleepiness immersing on her voice.

"Are you sure that's what she said? Because you know, you could have misheard it... Maybe she said something else and you just got it wrong," he said with tears forming in his eyes.

"Alex I'm so sorry... I wish that's what had happen but it didn't" Stephanie said reaching for his hand which Alex didn't deny "She said it more than once... more than... I don't know, she repeated it endlessly."

"This isn't the first time she has referred her kidnapper as Jo..." he said and sat at the chair next to Stephanie's bed "It's not the first time..." he cried.

"Alex... I don't know what to say..." she said with a sorrowful voice "But I don't believe, I know for sure Jo didn't do it and you should too."

"I just don't know what and who to believe anymore..." he said and brought his hands to his face to clean his tears from his eyes and cheeks. Stephanie was about to say something but a nurse came into to the room and interrupted them. Alex took that as a way to leave, said goodbye to Stephanie, and went home.

When he got into his garage, he realized he hadn't talk to Jo since she had left Stephanie's room. He got out of the car and entered the house from the door that lead to his kitchen. The house was completely dark place and Alex didn't bother to switch the lights on. He walked to the bottom of the stairs and called out for Jo, once and twice and again, however he had no answer from her part. He grabbed his phone to call her thinking she had gone somewhere else other than home, when he heard her phone ring from upstairs he followed the sound. When he entered their bedroom, his eyes flew to the bags that were standing in the middle of it first and then to the figure that was lying in bed, on top of the blankets with street clothes on sleeping, he thought.

"Jo?" Alex called her name while shaking her softly trying not to let fear overcome his actions, "Jo... Wake up"

"Alex?" she said waking up "Oh... Crap..."

"What are you doing?" he asked when Jo got up of the bed and started grabbing her bags "Where are you going?" he asked grabbing her arm making her turnaround from the bedroom' door.

"I have to go, Alex... I'm sorry"

"No... What are you saying? You're not going anywhere." He hugged her and made her let go of the bags "You can't! What are you doing?"

"Alex, I just can't keep doing this anymore... I see the looks everybody gives me..."

"Forget everybody... Look at me" he said losing their embrace and holding her face in his hands "You've got me. Screw them"

"No, Alex..." she said crying and shaking her head "I had you..."

"Jo..."

"After today I realized that you think just like them... _You_ think I did it..."

"No, Jo. I don't"

"You do Alex... I saw how you..." she stop and cleared her throat "I saw how you looked at me after what Stephanie said."

"Jo, that information was a shock to all of us. I didn't mean to." He said and kissed her lips "You can't leave... Don't leave, please" he kissed her again "I can't lose you too, Jo. Please..."

"What if I did it, Alex? What if actually took her and blocked it out in my head?" she asked sobbing "People sometimes block out things that are traumatic to them... that would make everything make sense. What if I took her and forgot about it, Alex?"

"You didn't do it, Jo" he said and kissed her temple hugging her "You didn't... Just don't leave..."

"Okay..." she whispered.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Jo we are going to be late... Hurry up!" Alex called from downstairs while Jo was still getting herself ready for the last meeting to discuss Abigail's custody agreement. When he got no answer from Jo's part he went upstairs and found her sitting on the bed with her face buried in her hands. "Jo..." He said making startling Jo who hadn't heard him coming inside the room.

"Oh... Sorry." She wiping her tears and standing up "Let's go. I'm ready."

"Hey...What's wrong?" Alex said grabbing Jo's arm when she tried to leave their bedroom.

"Nothing... It's just..." she sighed and shook her head "Never mind. Can we just go?" She asked him a little bit annoyed making him nod his head for an answer. They left the room and start walking down the hall, Alex walking behind her, until Jo stopped to open Camilla's bedroom door and stared inside it.

"She will be back..." Alex said, a couple of feet away from Jo "She will be back..." he said again.

"Alex... Stop it..." she said with tears threatening to fall out of her eyes, "You... You don't know that." She looked back at him, making him sigh before stepping closer to where she was standing and embrace her.

"She will be back, Jo, she will." He kissed her temple and tightened his arms around her "I'll find her and bring her back."

"Do you know what day it is today?" she said lifting her head up to look at his eyes.

"I know..." he said quietly closing his eyes

"Two months, Alex. It has been two months... What if she is-"

"She is okay" he cut her

"You don't know that..." she said with her lips trembling "It just hurts so bad... Why does it hurt this bad?" she sobbed

"I know, babe, I know..." he said crying himself now too "I miss her too..." They stood there like this for a couple minutes before Jo pulled her head out of his chest.

"Alex, we have to go..." she whispered

"No, you stay... I'll go. You need to rest..." he said and kissed her head before leaving.

She stood on the bedroom entrance watching Alex leave. "I miss you baby..." she whispered into Camilla's bedroom after she heard Alex close the front door "But I'll see you soon... Mommy's coming" she said and closed the room's door.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

"Camilla?" Mia called, standing on the backyard porch with her arms crossed on her chest, trying to look serious but failed when she smiled.

"Mia?" Camilla said mimicking Mia.

"Come on, you can play with the sprinklers later. You need to eat something now..." She said but Camilla shook her head and ignored her. "Okay then..." Mia said and started walking towards Camilla. When Camilla saw her, she started running making Mia run after her, both of them giggling.

"No..." Camilla said still giggling when Mia caught her "Stop it" she said laughing when Mia lift her up and started tickling her.

"Say sorry"

"I'm sorry..."

"Thank you." Mia said while placing Camilla on her hip "Now let's get you dry and fed."

"Okay. Do I have to take a nap today?" Camilla asked when Mia put her on the floor and started drying her bathing suit.

"We'll see"

They entered the kitchen and Camilla sat in one of the chairs at the kitchen table waiting for Mia to give her her food.

"Mia, when is mommy coming back? She is coming back?" she asked while watching prepare her snacks.

"Yes she is coming back..."

"When? I used to see her every day and now she is never home. Where is she?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know but I promise you she will come back, okay?" She said handing Camilla her plate of food.

"Okay... Mia?"

"Yes?" Mia answered.

"Is this your house too?" Camilla asked after swallowing the food.

"No. This my sister's house." Mia said.

"Who is your sister?"

"Your mommy." She said making Camilla look up from her plate with big eyes.

"No she is not." She giggled, "Mommy's sister is Auntie Jane and you are Mia not Auntie Jane."

"Well your mom has another sister."

"Has not." The little girl dared

"Has too. I'm gonna go peepee. Eat your food." Mia announced.

"Okay." Camilla said before Mia left. A little after Mia left the doorbell rang "Mia, there's someone at the door." Camilla yelled from her seat. When Mia didn't answer she got out of the chair and walked out of the kitchen, passing the living room and going into the hallway. "Who is it?" she asked.

"Police." They answered. Camilla stepped away from the door and went to look throught the window that was next to the door.

"Hi." She greeted them.

"Hello. Is your mom or dad home?" the police officer asked.

"No, they are working." She answered him.

"Are you alone?"

"No, silly... I'm too little to be alone" She said giggling, making both of the officer laugh with her "I'm with Mia"

"Okay. Can you call Mia for us?" the other officer asked. She nodded.

"Oh, she went peepee." She said remembering

"How old is Mia?" he asked.

"I don't know..." she shrugged her shoulders "She is big like you" she pointed to the youngest officer that was asking her questions "She is mommy's sister."

"Okay. Can you go tell her we are here?" he asked again.

"Okay... But don't come in, okay?" she warned them.

"We won't little miss." The older one said.

"Okay." She said walking away "Mia?", she called "Mia, the police is here."

"The police?" she asked, meeting her halfway, "Why?"

"I don't know. They told me to get you."

"Okay. Did you finish your food?" she asked and Camilla shook her head "Go finish it then."

Camilla did as she was told to and went into the kitchen to finish her food. She stayed there eating alone until Mia came back a couple of minutes later.

"Why did the police came?" Camilla asked Mia as soon as she entered the kitchen.

"They were looking from somebody who lived here before us."

"Oh okay. I'm done." She told Mia "Can I-" she started but was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. "Mommy?" she said looking at Mia. Mia nodded her head with a big smile on her face. Camilla smiled too and started getting out of the chair intending to meet the person that had come in at the hallway but the person beat her and appeared at the kitchen before Camilla could leave the kitchen.

"Baby!" the woman said when Camilla hugged her "Hi baby." She said after kissing Camilla's cheeks.

"Mommy?" she asked not believing it was her mom standing in front of her.

"Yes, sweetie. It's me. It's mommy." The woman said.

"Hi mommy. Hi" the little girl said petting the woman's cheek "Hi."

"Hi baby. I missed you too," the woman said embracing Camilla's body. "Why are you in a bathing suit?" she asked

"We were playing with the sprinklers." Camilla answered looking back at Mia.

"Hi Mia." The woman greeted her

"Hi." Mia said and left the kitchen.

"You look different, mommy." Camilla said looking weirdly at the woman that was holding her.

"I cut my hair. Do you like it?" she asked and Camilla nodded.

"Mommy, down." Camilla asked and the woman put her down "Mia said I could play in the playground if I eat my food and I ate it all." She said with delight

"Okay, go. I'll come check on you in a bit."

"Okay." Camilla said already going to the backyard.

"So..." the woman started, startling Mia, who was picking Camilla's toys up from the living room floor. "How have you been?"

"Do you really care?" Mia asked back. "You know... I know you don't really care about mom... But I do." Mia said point at herself "and she needs someone to look after her. So either you start showing up a lot more or I'm grabbing Camilla and take her right back to Seattle where she belongs."

"First of all, she is NOT my mother. She is just some woman who gave me and my sister up." The woman stated "For what? So, she could have you and raise you after?"

"You would know her reasons if you for once let her explain them to you!" Mia said and then looked out the sliding doors that led to the backyard where Camilla was playing at.

"Whatever Mia." The woman said shaking her head at Mia "I'm going to be with my daughter like a _mother_ should."

"What for? So that _your daughter_ won't be so sad after you leave?"

"At least I always come back."

**XXXXXXXXXXX**

"Jo we're home." Alex said as soon as he and Abigail entered the house. "Jo?" he called again when she didn't answer.

"Maybe she is not home..." Abby suggested shrugging her shoulders.

"She should be though." He answered.

"Am I staying here the night?" Abby asked Alex.

"Yes you are." He answered after he started walking up the stairs, Abigail following him.

"But I don't have a pajama." She said and stopped walking.

"I remember you bringing some clothes the last time you slept here..." he said turning back to look at her.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot." She giggled and kept going up the stairs. Alex opened the door to her bedroom and put her schoolbag on the chair by the desk.

"Do you have homework?" Alex asked and Abby shook her head. "I'm in my bedroom, call me if you need me, okay?" Alex said when Abby turned her back to him and walked to the toys box at the end of her bedroom.

"Okay." She answered not looking at him.

Alex left her bedroom and started walking to his while taking his phone from his pocket intending to dial Jo's number. He stopped dialing it when he heard Jo opening the house door and went down the stairs to meet her.

"Hey" he said approaching her.

"Hey" she said and accepted his kiss. After they parted, Alex scrunched his face at her. "Still not used to it?" she asked after rolling her eyes at him.

"I'll get used to short hair Jo" he said smirking when she started walking away in the kitchen direction.

"You better get." She said and put the grocery bags on the kitchen island.

"Where did you go? I mean beside the grocery?" he asked her.

"How do you know I went somewhere besides grocery?" she asked back.

"Well, because I told you to stay and rest and you don't looked rested..." he said caressing her cheek with his thumb.

"Nowhere, really. I drove to Ryan's stayed there for a little and then went to a park."

"Do what?" Alex asked frowning.

"... I don't know... Sit there, enjoy the view" she shrugged and shook her head.

"Okay then. Abby is upstairs. I'll make dinner."

"Okay..." she said, gave him another kiss and went up the stairs. When got into the hallway, upstairs, she knocked on Abby's bedroom opened door making the girl look back at her "Hello there."

"Hi." Abby said smiling

"What are you up to?" Jo asked when the girl hid her right hand behind her back.

"Nothing..." she answered. Jo looked at her suspiciously "I have something for you..."

"You do?" Jo asked eagerly.

"Yes... but you can't be sad, okay?" the girl asked and Jo nodded. "Here..." she handed her a picture and Jo looked at it shocked.

"When was this taken?" she asked with a trembling voice and then cleared her throat.

"The day I met you guys. I asked my nanny to take a picture of us while I was at the park." she said looking up at Jo.

"Thank you..." Jo said wiping a tear that had fallen from her right eye and then hugged Abby.

"You're welcome," Abigail said hugging her back.

"What do you want for din-" Alex started but then stopped looking at the scene in front of him making both Abby and Jo look at him "Am I interrupting something?" he asked.

"Yes!" they both answered.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"...Dad?" Abby whispered to herself when she spotted Alex outside of her classroom. He knocked on the door interrupting the class. She watched as her teacher left the class to talk to her father, and then came back in asking her to pack her things to leave with her dad and wishing her a happy summer break.

"Hi sweetheart" Alex said bending down to hug Abby.

"Why are you here?" She asked him once they pulled apart and he took her backpack out of her hands to place it on his right shoulder.

"I'm here to take you home and-" he said already starting to walk but stop when he didn't sense Abby walking up behind him and turned around.

"...Why?" she meant to say loud enough for him to hear but it only came out as a whisper. "I thought Will was coming to get me, Dad." she said a little louder, making Alex taking a couple of steps to go back to where she was standing.

"Honey, he..." he sighed and then squatted to be in the same eye level as Abby "He won't be able to come pick you up, so... I'll take you home with me, okay?" he said holding her hands in his.

"But why?" she asked with her eyes glittering with tears that were about to fall any second "Is Mommy okay?"

"Hey... Don't cry..." he said scooping her up "Shh... It's okay, She'll be okay" he soothed her rubbing her back up and down and rocking her.

"I wanna... I want to see her..." she said through sobs and lift her head up from his shoulder "Can I see her?" she asked him and Alex nodded.

"You can, but not now... She is having a surgery. I'm taking you home and then we'll go see her, okay?"

"Okay..." she whispered putting her head back on Alex's shoulder.

They left the school and went to the supermarket to buy some things Jo had asked Alex to before Morgan called him. As Alex drove through his driveway, he noticed that Jo's car wasn't there which he found weird because he had left her home. They entered the house and the silence inside only confirmed his suspicions, Jo for sure wasn't home.

"Abby, come down here. Your lunch is ready." Alex called from the bottom of the stairs and then went back to the kitchen. He looked at his child with sympathetic eyes as she entered the kitchen with a sad look on her face, and went to sit on the table with her.

"Dad...?" she said after a while, making Alex look up from his plate.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"Why is Jo never home when I'm here? I think she doesn't lik-"

"Let's make something clear first," Alex interrupted her before she could say what he thought she was going to "It has _nothing_ to do with you, okay?" he said and she nodded "She does like you, she just..." he said and the close his eyes sighing. "She just doesn't like being home anymore, I guess" he shrugged and when Abigail didn't say anything else he resumed eating. They ate their lunch in silent mostly, only chit chatting occasionally. When they finished it, Abby went to the living room and Alex stayed in the kitchen clean the dishes.

"Is she working when she isn't home?" Abby asked him snuggling next to him when he sat on the couch.

"No..." he answered pulling her closer to him.

"Where does she go then?"

"She just wanders around... Nowhere in particular"

"All day? Everyday?" Abigail asked surprised making Alex laugh at her.

"Yes, pretty much" he said. They watched TV until Alex noticed that Abigail had fallen asleep. He fished his phone from his pocket, dialed Jo's number, and heard it ringing a couple of times before she picked up.

**xxxxxxxxx**

"Mommy, did you know... umm... the princesses are coming here?" Camilla asked her, excitedly, while the woman was finishing braiding her hair.

"They are?" the woman asked with matching Camilla's excitement, making the girl nod her head eagerly "All done." She said when she finally finished her hair and Camilla stood up from the woman's lap.

"Can we go see them?" she asked after turning around "Please?"

"Camilla, we'll-" she started but got interrupted by the little girl.

"Please, Mommy?" She begged "Please"

"We can't go, baby..." the woman said getting up and started walking towards the kitchen

"Why not? I never get to go anywhere anymore." Camilla complained following behind the woman.

"Camilla, look... I can't take you anywhere near your dad, okay? At least not for now, okay?" the woman asked and Camilla only nodded, not questioning the woman's answer knowing she wouldn't answer what Camilla wanted to know. Just when Camilla and her were about to leave the house to go a park far away from there, where nobody would recognize them, she heard her phone ring and sighed.

"Hi..." she answered after she saw who was calling her. Camilla was holding her hand and was getting tired of standing still where she was so she gently tugged the woman's hand to get her attention. The woman looked down at her and when she noticed Camilla was about to say something, she let go of the little girl's hand and brought her hand up a little, signing for Camilla to wait a little.

"Yes, I'm a little bit far from there but I'll meet you there..." the woman said to the person she was talking to on the phone "Okay... I'm like 40 minutes away or so, so I'll just meet you there, okay?" she said again a little bit annoyed "Okay... I'll see you later, bye" she said and hung up.

The woman took Camilla hand again and they walk towards the car. While she was strapping Camilla in her car seat, she dialed Mia's number and held the phone to her hear by her shoulder.

"Hey Mia, are you home?" she asked and then close the car's back door and climbed up to her seat "Yeah, everything is okay. I just need to drop by with Camilla"

"But Mommy, what about the park?" Camilla whined from the back seat.

"Baby, I'm sorry... Mommy has to go somewhere, baby I'm so sorry." the woman said looking back at Camilla.

"It's okay..." Camilla said softly and cleaned the silent tears that she had cried.

After the woman and Mia ended their talk, she started driving to Mia's house. The woman didn't want to but she had no other choice but to do it.

"I'll take you to the park tomorrow, okay baby?" the woman told Camilla.

"Okay..." Camilla answered without taking her eyes from the car's window. "Are we going home?" she asked when she noticed they had passed the hospital and were doing the same path they did when they went home from the hospital.

"No, Camilla, we are going to Mi-" the woman started but was interrupted by Camilla squeal.

"Daddy! Daddy!" she yelled waving through the closed window when she saw that Alex had looked at her. She then scrunched her face when the woman didn't stop the car and Alex didn't wave back at her "Why didn't Daddy say hi?" she asked the woman.

"He can't see you from the outside of the car." The woman explained and thanked God the car's windows were chromed.

"But he looked at me..."

"He couldn't see you though, you can see outside but people outside can't see inside the car." the woman said looking at Camilla from the reviewer mirror.

"Who was that girl that was with Daddy?" Camilla asked a little after.

"Your daddy, he... he has another daughter"

"What?" Camilla widened her eyes "Nooo" she said now crying overwhelmingly and she kept crying all the way to Mia's house.

"Baby, shh..." the woman tried shushing her when she took her out of the car. "It's okay... Don't cry..."

"Hey..." Mia said when she opened the door of her house. As soon as Camilla heard Mia's voice, she lifted her head from the woman's shoulder and turned around holding her arms out for Mia to hold her. The woman was a little taken aback by Camilla's behavior towards Mia, but played it off. She was hurt that Camilla was searching for comfort in Mia's arms instead of hers.

"I... um... I probably won't be able to come back today..." the woman said.

"I'll take her home later." Mia said rubbing Camilla's back up and down soothing her, while the little girl cried.

"Okay... Bye baby" she said ruffling Camilla's hair and then left without getting any reaction from the girl.

Mia waited until her sister left to get inside her house and close the door.

"Hey, big girl... What is it?" Mia asked her and Camilla shook her head "Why are you crying? You don't want to tell me?"

"No" Camilla said shaking her head once again. Her cry had already subsided, so Mia took her to her living room and sat on the couch with Camilla on her lap. "I saw Daddy when Mommy and I were coming here"

"You did? Did he see you too?" Mia asked just to ask because she already knew that the answer for that question was 'no'.

"No..." Camilla said playing with Mia's necklace, "He has a new daughter..."

"I'm sorry..."

"He said he would come get me but he never came..." she said with a voice that Mia assumed she was about to cry again.

"When did he tell you that?" Mia asked rocking Camilla on her lap.

"When Mommy called him on the phone the other day... he left me and now he has a new daughter"

"Hey, he did _not_ leave you, okay?"

"But he never came see me and take me home... Mommy... she comes every day, but Daddy never came... he left me..."

* * *

**A.N.: **I want to thank you once more for keeping up with me through this story and keep supporting me. I do really appreciate your reviews and messages you send me and I feel so bad that I haven't been able to update at least weekly like I used to. I try writing whenever I have time but the truth is that I don't have as much time to do it now as I used to, I still have 4 more tests to do before school ends and after that I have 3 exams, so I've been spending my free time studying more and writing less.

Thank you so much for not giving up on this story, it really means a lot.

\- Tiana.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Jo, where are you?" Alex whispered to his phone, not wanting to disturb the other people who were in the waiting room with them.

"I'm home..." she answered him quietly as well "I just wanted to take a quick shower and-"

"You've got to be kidding me, Jo!" he interrupted her and got up, making Abigail instinctively tug at his shirt not wanting him to leave. "I'll be right back kiddo..." he told her.

"Alex? Are you there?" he heard her say while he was still talking to Abby.

"Yes! Just hold on a second." He said taking his eyes from his child for a split of a second "Just stay with him, okay?" he said to Abby pointing to Morgan who was sitting next to her.

"Okay..." she answered him and then Alex excused himself.

Alex walked out of the waiting room and went to a place where he could talk to his wife in private.

"Jo?" he said and heard her sigh before she spoke.

"Alex, I don't want to do this through the phone..." Jo said exhausted.

"You said you were forty minutes away, Jo!" he spat to the phone "We have been waiting for two freaking hours!"

"Alex I do-" she started but was interrupted.

"Who are you with?" Alex asked after hearing giggles on the background

"Nobody... It's just the TV."

"So you are not coming... Will I find you home or are you escaping tonight again?"

"Alex, I'll see you later. Bye" he heard her say and before he could answer back, Jo ended up the call.

Alex went back to the waiting room where he had left Morgan and Abigail at and when he got there, he found the doctor already there trying to talk to his daughter stepfather who had his face buried in his hands. He tried looking around for Abby but couldn't find her, so he just assumed she had gone to the restroom or the vending machine.

"How is she?" Alex asked the doctor once he got close to both of them.

Alex watched as the doctor looked away from Morgan and then at his direction shaking his head slowly.

"She coded on the operating table. We did everything we could but we were not able to bring her back" the doctor said shaking his head "I'm sorry for your lost" he stated before he left the waiting room.

Alex stood there looking at Morgan and remembered what it was like when he was at that situation. He remembered how desperate he felt when Izzie and he were still together and he had lost her, even if it was for a short time. He still remembered how he felt when he watched his colleagues working on his then wife that had died on his arms.

"I'm sorry, man..." Alex said putting his hand on Morgan's shoulder and squeezing it, in return the detective only nodded his head as a sign of appreciation of Alex's attitude. "Where is Abby?" Alex asked and it wasn't necessary for Morgan to answer him that question because they both had seen Abby walking out of the restroom as he had assumed before.

They watched as Abigail strolled towards them, unaware of what had happened. None of them knew what to say or how to say it when she was finally near them. Alex wanted to be straightforward but she was just a kid who had just lost her mother. Alex found himself struggling to say anything so Morgan stepped forward and started talking.

"Hey Abby... Why don't you sit down?" Morgan said pulling the girl to sit down in one of the chairs.

"Can I go see her now?" she asked them a bit impatient.

"Abby... She didn-" Morgan started but the girl interrupted him.

"She's dead, isn't she?" she asked him with her eyes glistening and when he didn't answer her she looked up to Alex "Dad?" she said not holding her tears in anymore. Alex closed his eyes and nodded.

"Abby I'm so sorry..." her stepfather said trying to hug her but she fought his hug.

"You said she had more time... You promised..." she told him sobbing.

"We thought she had more time, honey..." Alex was the one talking now. He kneeled in front of her and forced her into a hug, ignoring her attempts to make him to let go of her. "I know, baby... I know. It hurts right now, but I promise it will get better." He said stroking her hair once she stopped resisting him.

"You said... You said she would be alright, Dad." She said and heard Alex whispering 'I know' to her "I wanna go home..."

"Okay, we'll go home now" Alex said and then kissed her temple.

"No. I wanna go _home._" She said again and Alex realized she was talking about her home and not Alex's house. Alex looked at Morgan and he nodded his head letting Alex know it was okay for her to stay with him.

"I have to take care of some things firs Abby, okay?" Morgan informed her and she nodded. He went to deal with everything about Izzie's death and sign some papers while Alex stayed with Abigail until he came back. When he got back to the waiting, Abigail held her arms out for him to pick her up and so he did.

"I'll come to get you whenever you're ready, okay?" Alex said and Abby nodded.

The three of them left the waiting room and Morgan and Abigail left the hospital before Alex di because he had to talk to Hunt about getting back to work.

"Dr. Karev?" Just as Alex was about to leave the hospital he heard somebody call his name and turned to where it was coming from. "Dr. Karev, this was left here for you" the receptionist said handing him an envelope.

"Who is it from?" Alex asked scrunching his face after looking at the envelope and not seeing a sender's name.

"I don't know... I'm not the one who received it, I just started my shift and this was already here."

"Okay... Thank you..." Alex thanked her and the receptionist gave him a little smile.

Alex left the hospital and got into his car, so that he couple open the envelope and see what was inside it. Once he opened it, he first saw pictures inside and then a folded paper behind the pictures. He took one of the pictures out of the envelope, but closed his eyes not wanting to see it just yet, because he knew only one person would sent him an envelope without signing it. He stayed that way for a few seconds before he sighed and opened his eyes. His eyes immediately met the face of his baby girl; he could tell she was laughing when the picture was taken. She was in a backyard he did not recognize and in a bathing suit he had bought her. He looked at all the pictures inside of the envelope and then took the letter out to start reading it, surprised that it was a short one.

_Alex, first I want to say sorry, for taking her away from you. It was never my intention but I couldn't find another way be with her without you constantly wanting to be with her. At first, I didn't think she'd be okay without you but she is now. She would ask about you all the time, wanted to see you and talk to you; she doesn't anymore, at least not much. She has seen you a couple of times, even though you did not see her and it crushed her heart every time she would see you and you didn't notice her. I am sorry it has to be this way, I really am, but we are okay. She is fine; she is great, healthy and happy. I'm taking care of our little girl, don't you worry about that. Stop looking for her, please. I promise you I will do my best to raise her and love her like I always have. Alex, I know it was a selfish act from me to just take her away. Alex thank you for giving me one of the best presents I could ever get in my life._

_I'm sorry._

He put the letter and all of the pictures back inside the envelope and remained neutral as if what had just happened never did happen and started the car to go home.

Alex drove alone through the dark streets of Seattle, even though he didn't like it he knew he had made a good decision by leaving his daughter with the one she had known has her dad for the last couple of years. Alex knew that even if Abigail didn't referred to Morgan as her dad she loved him that way. Without knowing, he found himself already at his driveway. He sighed and rested his head on his steering wheel. He found himself laughing after a little and then his laughter became a cry, a much needed cry. In three months he lost one daughter and gained another one. he wanted to be happy, at least a little bit happy, but he couldn't. Every time he looked at Abigail, he thought of Camilla, he couldn't not think about her every time Abby called him dad. And now he knew that somebody was making his baby girl think he had abandoned her and making her forget about him. He cried until he had no more tears to cry and then sighed and cleaned his face free from tears. There was no way in hell he would stop looking for his daughter.

Alex got out of the car and took a couple deep breaths before he entered his house. Since all the lights downstairs were already off he assumed Jo had already fallen asleep so he went upstairs, put the envelope on his bedside table and took a shower before he could go to bed.

When Alex got out of the bathroom, he found Jo sitting on the bed instead of being asleep like she was.

"Hey..." she whispered to him and Alex looked at her with a tired face. "How is Izzie?"

"Dead." He said and then climbed in bed "She died in surgery." He said and laid down face away from Jo.

"I'm sorry... Is Abby asleep?" she asked him, looking at his figure.

"No."

"Where is she?"

"Home." He said annoyed.

"Alex, can you talk to me?" Jo asked him with the same annoyance as him.

"Now you wanna talk?" He barked at her turning around to face her and showing her his angry face.

"Okay, Alex. Why are you so mad at me? What did I do? I'm just trying to know how she is..." she said trying to make him calm down.

"You don't even care about her, Jo, why do you want to know?" he said and then got up grabbing his pillow.

"Alex? Wait..." Jo said getting up as well and rush behind him "Where are you going? Stop!" she yelled at him making him stop walking in the direction of the guest room. "Alex, talk to me... Why do you think I don't care about her?"

"Because you don't. All you do is run away; you don't even put in an effort to get to know her."

"Alex, you know tha-"

"She thinks you don't like her because you're never around. You are never around Jo. Where do you even go to? I don't get to see you anymore. I go to sleep to an empty bed. I _wake up _to an empty bed most of the times." He said, his voice getting louder with every word that came out of his mouth.

"She is your daughter Alex... She isn't Camilla..." she said with her voice breaking.

"No shit. Don't you think it is hard for me too? But I don't go away every time I feel like to. I don't up and decide that I don't want to be home and leave until I feel like coming back."

"Alex, I lost my baby... And I-" she said as tears fell down her face.

"I, I, it's always I... Does it ever cross your damn mind that I lost my child too?! She was mine too, Jo! WE lost our baby, YOU weren't the only one!"

"I know she was yours too Alex, but you don't know how I-"

"I don't know how you feel... because I don't know how much it hurts to wake up and know that isn't here, do I? Do you even hear yourself? I miss her too. I hurt too!"

"But you have Abby..."

"I can't believe you, Jo. I can't do this anymore... I'm don't even _know_ you anymore. There's a... an envelope on my nightstand with pictures of Camilla in there." He said before he turned around to keep his track.

"What? Alex? Please. Stop." She yelled at him again.

"Goodnight Jo." He said and slammed the door to the guest room when closing it.

Today had been a tiring day.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: **

I'm so sorry for the delay but life got in the way of my plans. And thank you for being patient. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 19

"I don't know what to do anymore Jane... This has been going for months now, ever since his ex-wife died." Jo said as she filled a cup with hot chocolate and gave it to Jane.

"So why don't you go back to work, Jo?" Jane suggested, "It has been what? Eight months now? Nine? Don't get me wrong but you should be ready to work by now..."

"I know..." Jo sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter, "I'm not ready ... That's what I have been trying to tell him. I just don't think I'll ever be ready to go there again."

"Jo, I don't know how it feels like to lose your own child but… You know you… Ugh." Jane grunted struggling to put to words what she was trying to say "Look, I know you lost her but come on… Just try… Please?"

"Janet, no. Let's just drop this. I don't want to go there!"

"See," Jane pointed at her sister and Jo shook her head not understanding what her friend meant by that "I knew this wasn't about you being ready or not… Seriously Jo, why don't you want to go back?"

"Because people are too… They look at me like a sold my daughter to some old man to marry. They are disgust by me and didn't even… I will always be the 'mother who kidnapped her own child'… I just can't Janet."

"But you didn't…" Jane said but it sounded more like a question.

"Jane, I thought you…" Jo said with disbelief lacing in her voice.

"I'm sorry, Jo. I'm sorry… But just see it from my perspecti-"

"That is all I've been doing!" Jo interrupted Jane by yelling "I have been putting myself in everybody else's shoes but no one wants to wear mine, Jane" she said and then sighed sitting down in front of her sister "No one wants, no one at least tries to see from my perspective. No one knows how hard it is for me…" She said losing some tears.

"Jo, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to"

"No, no…" Jo said shaking her head "You know… They say you can feel it when… When…"

"Feel what?"

"When someone you love is gone and I… I don't feel her dead but…" she said and sniffed looking at her sister eyes "I feel like I'll never see her again" she sobbed.

"Oh Jo, you can't think like that" Jane said getting up and embracing Jo while she cried "You can't lose hope"

"How am I not supposed to? When everything in my life is falling apart? My daughter is gone… My marriage is falling apart… And I love him so much but I don't think we will ever be same. I don't think we can pull through this."

"Jo maybe you shou-" Jane started but Jo interrupted her.

"I can't connect with her… I thought I would be okay raising someone else's child but I'm not. I can't, not under this circumstances. It is too hard…" she sniffed again "It just keeps reminding me what my daughter and I could be doing if she was here"

"Have you ever told Alex this?" Jane asked and Jo lifted her head up to look at Jane and shook her head "Well maybe you should and then you can figure out your next steps. You can just bottle things inside and expect people to know what's going on inside your head."

"Thank you…" Jo whispered to her sister.

"Anytime. Now get up because I gotta go and I need my chauffeur." She said and Jo giggled.

**XXXXXXXXXXX**

"Mia" Camilla yelled from the living room before she walked out of there and went to the kitchen where Mia and her mother were "Can I feed the fishie?"

"You'll have to ask her" Mia said pointing to her mother who was sitting next to her.

"Can I feed the fish, please?" Camilla asked timidly

"Yes darling, go ahead, just don't give them a lot of food." She said and Camilla nodded and walked away "I wish I could get to see her more often…"

"I know, Mom," Mia said and then sighed "but I don't think that will be possible. At least not until-" the sound of her ringtone interrupted her, she looked at her cellphone and close her eyes squinting them.

"Is that her?" her mother asked and Mia nodded.

"Hey…" Mia breathed into the phone

"Why did you take her there again?" the woman spat into the phone

"I'm taking her home now… Relax, we are on our way"

"No, you don't have to take her home, I'm outside. Open the door" the woman said and hang up the phone.

"She is… here." Mia said in disbelief "I can't believe she came here" she said and shook her head. They heard multiple knocks on the door and Mia stood up to get the door. When Camilla saw Mia pass by the living room entrance she followed her. The woman knocked one more time on the door before Mia opened it.

"Let's go." The woman said to Camilla and held her hand out for Camilla to take.

"Where are we going?" Camilla asked the woman and before she could answer her question Mia started talking.

"Go get your things, okay?" Mia asked Camilla and the little girl nodded and went to collect her things "Won't you come in?" Mia asked the woman opening the door wider and showing the mid-sixties lady that was standing on the hallway.

"There's no need for me to come in" she said after a brief eye contact she and the lady had made "Come on honey, we have to go" she said when saw Camilla reappearing in the hallway and hugging the lady goodbye.

"Hey J," the lady said to her daughter after Camilla let her go.

"Don't call me that… You don't even know my name" the woman said tapping her foot for Camilla to hurry up.

"Her name is Jo" Camilla turned around to the lady and said it smiling.

"Camilla!" the woman scolded her "Let's go. Now!"

"Bye" Camilla said and waved "You are not coming?" She asked Mia once she saw that Mia was going to close the door.

"Later, I'll go home later" Mia said and winked her eye at her.

"Do you like it in here?" the woman asked Camilla as they walked to the car "Do you like Mia's mom?"

"Yeah… She is nice and…Mommy?"

"Yes?" the woman answered climbing up in her seat.

"That's Mia's mommy? So she is your mommy too?" the girl asked intrigued "You have two mommies? Why she doesn't know your name?"

"Slow down, honey. One question at a time." The woman said giggling and Camilla smiled "She is Mia's mom but she is not my mom…"

"Oh!" Camilla wrinkled her brows and tilted her head to the side "How come?"

"Well, I didn't know her when I was little… I had a lot of mommies and daddies because I didn't know my real mommy and my real mommy didn't know me."

"But she is your real mommy?"

"Hmm… Kind of"

**XXXXXXXXXXX**

Alex was just about to start to prepare himself to do a minor procedure on a five year old when he felt his phone vibrate on the pocket of his lab coat. He took his phone out of pocket to see who was calling him and when he didn't recognize the number he ignore the call planning to call back after he finished the surgery, but it didn't take long before his phone started vibrating again.

"Alex Karev." Alex greeted the caller

"Dad?"

"Hey, Abby. What's up?"

"Um… So, who's coming to pick me up from school?" Abigail asked

"What do you mean who's picking you up? You're still at school?"

"Hmm yes… I've been waiting for ages. I called Jo but she didn't answer her phone" She answered and Alex banged his hand on the sink.

"Alex?" he jumped slightly at sound of Arizona's voice since he hadn't heard her walking in there.

"I'll be there in a minute, okay?"

"Okay, bye."

"Alex? What's going on? Is everything okay?" Arizona asked him worried about his behavior.

"I have to go somewhere really quick. Can you do this without me?" he begged her.

"Yes… sure. Is ever-" before she could finish Alex stormed out of the scrubbing room.

On his way to the school he tried calling Jo, which was all for nothing because she not once pick her phone up. He then called Jane who told him that Jo dropped her off at the airport and then went back home, but knowing Jo, he immediately knew that she hadn't went back home. He got Abby from school and took her to the hospital where they stayed until his shift was over. As he approached his driveway he noticed that Jo's car was there which could mean nothing because she could've gone to her night runs. They entered the house to find going to the laundry room with a basket full of clothes that she had brought from upstairs.

"Hey…" she turned to greet Alex when she heard the back door open "Abby…" she said when she noticed that Alex wasn't alone. _Oh, Abby_. She thought and closed her eyes.

"Why don't you like me?" the child asked Jo. "I have never done anything to you…"

"Abby, I'm so sor-" Jo tried to apologize but Abigail interrupted her

"No you're not! You did it on purpose"

"Abby, can you go to your room please?" Alex asked his daughter and she nodded and left.

"Alex, I'm so sorry… I completely forgot. I'm sorry" Jo said and put the basket on the floor and walked towards her husband.

"What is wrong with you, Jo?" he asked shaking his head in disbelief "Now, seriously… What is wrong with you?!"

"I forgot she was coming _today_" she said and looked at him with apologetic eyes which made Alex give a humorless chuckle.

"Do you have any idea of what could have happened to her?" he yelled at her

"You're making it sound like I did on purpose, Alex!" she shouted back at him "I forgot!"

"You CAN'T forget things like that! Why don't you ever answer your goddamn phone?"

"Alex, I said I'm sorry… What do you want me to do?"

"That is not the freaking point! Saying sorry isn't enough. Act like you fucking mean it, Jo!" he spat as his face turned red from all the anger he was feeling at that moment "You don't even have the decency to call people back."

Jo just stood there taking everything he was saying. Every word that came out of his mouth stung her but she knew he was right. He had all the right to be worried and angry with her.

"How do you even forget to pick your child up from school?" he asked her skeptically "After everything that has happen? How?"

"She is not my-" Jo said as the tears fell down her cheeks

"So that's why you left her there? Because she is not _yours_?"

"I'm sorry… I don't know what else to do…" she said shaking her head

"How could you be this irresponsible?!"

"Stop it, Alex… Please. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave her there… She was just sleeping… I thought she would be okay if I left her there for a couple more minutes."

"Jo, what are you talking about? This isn't about her… We're talking about Abby"

"It is, Alex. It is in some sort of way…"

"Why do you deny her so much?"

"Because she is not mine!" Jo said sobbing.

"What happened to the 'what's mine is yours too'? She is not just mine… She is ours. Someone could have taken _our_ daughter away"

"SOMEBODY ALREADY DID!"

Where did _my_ Jo go?" he asked crying himself now "The one that cared about the others, the one full of love to give, strong and independent to Jo I once knew and loved?" he sniffed "Where is she? Because this person standing in front of me, I… I don't _know_ her. I don't _know you_… Not anymore…"

"This is so hard, Alex. I… I… I don't even know when was the last time we kissed each other or had a normal conversation without ending up fighting… When was it Alex?" she asked him and then sniffed "I can't keep doing _this_ anymore…" Jo said pointing to the space between them and looking down at the ground shaking her head.

"I love you Jo… I really _do love you_ but I don't think I can keep doing _this_ either…"


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"It feels weird to do this…" Abby said as she round the Christmas tree with garland.

"Do what? Decorate the tree?" Alex asked her and she nodded "You've never done this before?"

"Yes. But it was just mom and I most of the time" she said. "What if I forget about her? I don't want to"

"Hey…" Alex said softly approaching her and embracing her body on his arms "You won't forget her. I won't let you forget her. I promise."

"Okay…" She said and let go of him breaking their embrace "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything you want"

"Remember a couple of nights ago when Jo… um… left?" she asked and he nodded, wrinkled his brows not understanding what she was trying to ask "Well… I don't think you noticed but…" she took her eyes away from his and looked down on the floor.

"What is it, Abby? You can ask."

"Remember when I came back after Mom died and told you that Jo had yelled at me because I was running down the stairs and she thought I was Camilla?"

"You are confusing me here, kiddo"

"You did it too" she said quickly "You called me Camilla too, Dad…" she said and walked to the couch to sit down on it.

"I'm sorry…" he said walking to sit next to her "I didn't mean to… I'm so sorry"

"Do you wish I was her?" she asked and when she didn't get an answer from him, she lifted her head to look at him. Alex was looking straight ahead pondering how to say what he wanted to say without hurting her, deep down he knew that the answer for that question was no. But there were those times were he wished she was Camilla. Not for the fact that he didn't love her as his child but for the fact that she was _there. _

"Listen," he said after turning to face Abigail "Is not that I wish you _were_ her, okay? It's just that…um… Look," he said grabbing both of her hands and holding them in his "The day your sister was born was one of the scariest and happiest days of my life. I held her for the first time and I realized that I had this little tiny human in my hands that I was supposed to protect but I had no idea how to. I was so afraid for her. I was afraid I wouldn't know what her cries meant or that I wouldn't know how to connect with her. I was afraid of her first heartbreak, I was afraid I would fail her or that wouldn't be a good father to her. I didn't know the first thing about being _her_ dad, even though I was my brother and sister's dad I had no idea how to be a dad to her at that moment. I thought of the day that she would hate me just for being her dad, or because I would be so overprotective or just wouldn't like her boyfriend or group of friends. I didn't know but I still promised her that I would protect her from all of that and that no matter what I would always be there for her because I loved that baby with every single bone of my body. I didn't get to do any of that with you… I didn't get to hold you as baby or watch you take your first steps, hear your first word… and I've been getting to know you for the last nine months and it is just still a little bit hard because you remind me so much of her. Your nose, it… it wrinkles when you force yourself not to cry because you don't want people to see you cry even though all you just want to is flat out cry. You are very independent… Even when it's clear that you need help, you still say you don't need it because you want to do everything by yourself. You can hardly keep your eyes open when you are laughing and when you smile… your left cheek goes a litter higher than your right and your left eye closes more than your right… See that right there" he said when she smiled "And she does all of that too. You two are so much alike and that makes it a little hard on me but that doesn't mean that I don't love you or that I wish she was here instead of you. You are my baby too. I would go to the end of the world for you. I don't wish you were Camilla, okay? I just wish I had my two babies here with me, okay?" he said and she nodded. Alex let go of her hands and opened his arms as an invitation for a hug "I love you, okay kiddo?" he said and felt her nodding against his chest and then kissed the top of her head.

"I wish I knew earlier" she said after a little "That way I could have brought her home that day"

"I don't want you thinking like that. It wasn't your fault"

"Okay…" she whispered "Do you think we will ever find her?" she said and lifted her head up from his chest.

"Yes… I'll find her myself"

"Is Jo coming back?"

"Honestly I don't know? Maybe she will"

"She is a little mean to me sometimes but I know she doesn't mean to…"

"I'm sorry…" Alex said and then sighed "She just has her heart somewhere else now."

"I like her though" she said with a tired voice "I didn't apologize to her for" she got interrupted by her own yawn "For yelling at her"

"Come on, let's go to bed" Alex said when he noticed that her eyes were closed and her breathing was becoming steady

"I'm not sleepy…" she protested. _Of course you're not_ Alex thought. He didn't say anything else, he just pulled her closer to him and started playing with her hair until he closed his eyes and started falling asleep as well. He didn't stay asleep for long because the noise of the front door closing woke him up.

"Hey…" Jo said softly "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up… I'm just gonna grab some stuff and go" she said and started walking to the stairs.

"Wait." Alex said trying to get up but Abby's head on his lap didn't let him.

"No. Alex please… just go back to sleep and let me do this, okay?" she pleaded him and turned back to go upstairs this time. Alex stayed on the couch pondering if he should or not go upstairs after her. It hadn't passed to much time but for him it had been an eternity since she had gone to their bedroom, so he got up and picked Abby up to put her to bed. He went upstairs with Abby, putt her to bed gave her a kiss goodnight and then went into their bedroom. Jo wasn't there when he entered but since the bathroom light was on he assumed she was in the bathroom.

"Alex!" she said stopping in her tracks her put her hand on her chest "Are you trying to kill me?"

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to scare you… I just…" he shook his head "Can we talk?"

"We don't have anything to talk about and I have to… um… I have to go" she said hurrying to grab her stuff so she could leave as quickly as possible.

"We do…" he whispered searching for her eyes that had dropped to the floor.

"No we don't…" she said and tried to pass by him but he grabbed one of her arms "Can you let me go? Please…" she said with tears lining the rims of her eyes

"No. Hey, look…" Alex said holding both of Jo's hands in his. He looked into Jo's eyes and the words he was going to say to her suddenly went away. When he looked in her eyes he realized that he hadn't done that in a while, he hadn't looked into her eyes in a long time. He hadn't felt that connection in what seemed ages. He felt as if he had been avoiding looking at them and he admitted to himself that he had. He had used work to avoid being home just as Jo used to do everything she could in order to not stay there. Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears, filled with sorrow, loneliness and desperation. His eyes wandered form her eyes to her lips and then back to her eyes. He knew what she her eyes were saying. She was sorry to. He wasn't ready to let her go. Not yet. They still could make it work. He felt the sudden urge to kiss her, he looked back to her lips and then into her eyes once again and he knew she wanted to do that to. He let go of her left hand and brought his right to touch her face. His fingers wandered from her cheeks to her chin. He then let go of her other hand and placed his hand on her right cheek and caressed it. They locked their eyes on each other before Alex lowered his head and Jo lifted hers. Their lips met in a pain filled kiss. They told how much they missed each other and how sorry they were in their kiss. Alex's lips told her how sorry he was for not being there for her and hers told him how sorry she was that they couldn't fix that. She wished they could go back to the time when they were happy, when love was all they needed and they were far from the end. She wished this didn't have to end up that way. She wished there was another way to make this work.

They parted and stared at each other's teary eyes. Alex understood what she was trying to say but he didn't want her to say it out loud because if she didn't say it out loud it wouldn't have to go that way.

"I'm so sorry, Alex…" Jo said after she saw a single tear falling from his right eye "I'm so, so sorry" she said crying.

"I know I said I couldn't do this anymore a couple of nights ago, Jo. But we still can. We still can make this work…" he said and she just shook her head "We can go to… We can go to couple counseling or something like that… Stop saying no, let's just try this… please, Jo."

"I just need a break from all of this Alex. I can't stand being here… I can't"

"Then we will move out… we'll find a new home and start again." He said desperate "We can even leave Seattle. Let's go somewhere new"

"I can't do this… Not now. I need a break, baby…"

"You need a break but you want an out, Jo. Don't you see it?" he said and lifted her chin up so he could look into her eyes that had gone to the floor once again "I love you"

"I love you too… but just loving you is not enough… not anymore. And this is for the best, Alex"

"There's no good in goodbye" Alex sniffed and said.

"There is this time…"

"So this is it?" he asked and she nodded "Jo… Please"

"I can't… I'm so sorry… I can't"

"We are supposed to be each other's family… We are supposed to be together forever."

"I never thought we would be here either… I love you more than you will ever know but there's this part of me that has died and there's only one person that can revive it. I have tried, Alex. You tried to revive it but you couldn't. Look at me, please," Jo said grabbing his chin "I will _always_ love you, Alex" she said and Alex closed his eyes and tears of frustration fell from his eyes.

"Just go, Jo"

"Can I hug you?" She said and looked at his still closed eyes. She put her arms around his neck and squeezed it "Alex, please…" he then surrendered and hugged her back. She took her head from his shoulder and placed both of her hands on his cheek and gave him one last kiss.

"I will always love you too." he said against her lips.

"Goodbye…"


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The cold weather of December woke Jo up because somehow she managed to get the blankets off of her body while she was sleeping. She sat on her bed and looked ahead to the semi-closed blinds in her room and since there was no sunlight peeking through them she assumed it was still early. She decided to get out of bed anyway since she wasn't going be able to fall asleep again. She got up and went to the bathroom to do her morning routine. She was just finishing washing her face when she looked at herself in the mirror and saw the defenseless and pitiful little girl she once was.

_From a young age Jo learned not to depend on anybody, she learned that she was alone in this world and that she would be the only person she would ever need. She never thought that one day she would have a family, she dreamed about it of course but never really thought her dreams would ever come true. She learned that nobody was trustworthy and that nobody would ever love her, so learned to love and only trust herself. That all changed the moment she got to know Alex. First she met a person that couldn't care less about her existence, like most people she met throughout her life. Then that person became someone she hated but all that hate went out of the window once they started to get to know each other and before she knew she was falling in love with him. Jo was falling for someone, she never thought she could fall for someone after all she had been through, it was an overwhelming feeling and she got scared. She was scared he would turn out to be like the others so she treated him bad before he could do it, to defend herself. Instead of admitting her feelings she tried running away from them and got involved with someone she thought she deserved. Someone like all those others that ever crossed her life and just like she expected he didn't care about her. And even after that he was still there for her. That was when she realized he cared, she realized she found the person she had dreamed of her all life. She had found someone that she could finally trust. She felt loved and at that moment she realized she could open up and let him in. He was the one she had secretly been waiting for. She still was scared to let herself completely fall for him but he showed her that she could. She then started thinking Alex would be all she would ever need and all she would ever love but life proved her wrong once again. She thought she knew what true love was but she had only known a bit of it. True love, she only felt it when she held her baby for the first time and at that moment she knew that she was the one. That baby was her dream come true and she was worth all the pain she had gone through her life. Her life became something she never thought it would. She felt complete with them and if they were all she would ever have, she would have enough. She let her guard down and life once again punished her for it, she should have known better but just wanted her happy ending too. Why did everybody get their happy ending but her? She knew life didn't like her but she thought life would spare her just for once and let her be happy for good with no interruptions. She just wanted to be happy. She deserved to be happy, she had gone through enough for a lifetime. She deserved a chance to be happy but life didn't think the same way she did. She didn't even get to enjoy to the fullest the little bit of happiness she experienced but if she knew it would end so soon she would have worshiped every little detail._

She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her teary face in the mirror. She splashed water on her face and then grabbed the towel to dry her face. She walked out of the bathroom and entered her room to get dressed so she could start her day. It had been a week ever since she had talked to Alex for the last time. And there was another thing life had taken from her, Alex. She hadn't actually had a real talk to anybody in a whole week, not that she had been isolated from the world but hadn't had been talking to anybody in particular.

She went downstairs to fix herself something for breakfast. Being alone wasn't anything new for Jo, she was used to be alone once and it didn't use to bother her much but after those eight years of being in a company of someone, she had forgotten how bad it felt to be alone. She remembered back in her high school days that whenever she felt too lonely she would drive from where she was to the only place she knew she was always welcomed. She hadn't talked to that woman in a while. She took her cellphone from the kitchen counter and dialed Mrs. Schmidt number, she heard it ring twice before she answered the call.

"Hello?" she heard Mrs. Schmidt's voice on the phone and before she knew it she was already crying "Jo, darling, is that you?"

"Ye-Yes" she croaked in a voice that Jo herself didn't recognize.

"Oh, honey h-" she was interrupted by Jo's sobs, since Jo was having a breakdown she waited until Jo stopped crying to speak again "Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah… I'm sorry I haven't been returning your calls… I wanted to be okay before I could talk to you and-"

"And did your plan work out, young lady?" Jo shook her head to that question as if Mrs. Schmidt could see her "How have you been? How is everything?"

"Alex and I are getting divorced…" She whispered

"You are what? Did I hear you right? Why are you getting a divorce now for?" Jo didn't answer "Josephine, you can't give up now… Look, I'm going there next week for Christmas and you, Alex and I are going to have a talk b-"

"I won't be here anymore…" she interrupted her.

"What do you mean you won't be there? Where will you be then?" Mrs. Schmidt asked concerned.

"I don't know yet… but I'm leaving Seattle, I'm leaving this state. I can't be here anymore…"

"Josephine, you are being reckless! You can't just leave! I _will_ see you next week and you are spending the Christmas with us."

"I have my bags already done… I need to learn how to breathe again and I can't do it here… So I have to go elsewhere to begin again. It's _too hard_ to keep living here…"

"Then come stay with me, okay honey? You know you are always welcome here with me… Can you just wait until I'm there?"

"I'm gonna meet with Alex today to legalize everything… I just wanted to say goodbye… and thank you for everything you have done for me but I have to be alone for now… I love you" Jo heard Mrs. Schmidt yell her name through the phone and she hung up before she could say anything else.

**xxxxxxx**

"Mommy!" Camilla yelled walking down the hall from her bedroom to the woman's "Mommy, wake up" she said tapping the woman in the cheek "Wake up! It's Christmas!" she said with delight.

"Good morning to you too" the woman said opening her eyes slowly and meeting Camilla's excited face inches away from hers.

"Come on, get up" Camilla said pulling on the woman's arm that was closer to her "Get up"

"I'm up. I'm up" she said pulling the covers from her body and then got out of bed following Camilla as she ran excitedly down the hall. "Slow down, Camilla. Wait, I'm gonna get the camera" The woman went back into her bedroom and just as she came out of there again Camilla started running down the stairs.

As the woman reached to the bottom of the stairs Camilla was already impatiently waiting for her next to the Christmas tree. She walked close to where Camilla was standing and then sat down on the floor recording as they laughed and their Christmas gifts. When they finished it, they went to the kitchen to make themselves breakfast.

"Mommy…" Camilla said lifting her head up from her plate "The other day umm… Mia said we should get daddy a present too…"

"She did?" the woman asked and Camilla nodded her head "Well… do you want to?"

"No" she mumbled.

"No?" she asked and Camilla shook her head slowly "Why not, baby?"

"Because he doesn't deserve it…" she whispered hurt

"Oh Mimi, don't say that baby…" the woman said reaching across the table to hold Camilla's hands. "…he does deserve it I'm the one who doesn't. I don't deserve you… If something happens to us and you can't stay with mommy I want you to know that I love you-"

"But I don't want to. I want to stay with you." Camilla said and pulled her hands out of the woman's grasp.

"Hey, hey. It's okay, it's okay." She said getting up and then walked around the table to console her child "There's no need for tears, okay? Look at me" she said and the little girl did so "I know you won't understand it now, but when the time comes I hope you'll forgive me and understand that everything I did was because I love you and I didn't want to lose you, okay?" she said and kissed Camilla on her temple.

"Okay"

"I'm sorry we had to leave your dad's house, I know you miss him a lot and you want to see him-" She was interrupted by Camilla shaking her head "You do want to see him, baby-"

"No I don't wanna see him ever again" she cried and put her head on the woman's chest.

"Okay, you don't have to… You know what?"

"What?" Camilla lifted her head from the woman's chest and asked.

"How about we leave here? What do you think?"

"We already live here, Mom" She looked at the woman confused which made the woman giggle.

"No I mean leave this place, go somewhere new wh-"

"Again? Why?"

"I promise that it will be the last time we move. We can go away from here, so you can go to daycare while mommy works instead of staying with Mia all the time…"

"I like being with Mia too, mommy and if we go away I can't sleep at her house again like the other day… Can she come?"

"No she can't but I can try to bring you here to see her sometimes or maybe she can come to see us. And if we go you can make new friends. Don't you miss playing with other kids?" she asked and the child nodded "So let's go"

"Now?"

"Yes."

**xxxxxxx**

Being alone at the house was something new to Alex. For all those years that he had lived there not once the house was empty. The house was supposed to be a home, it once was a home full of people who loved and/or hated each other but they all managed to live together and were happy there. And now there was Alex, alone in that house that he once called home. He was trying his best to at least make the house a home to his daughter but when she wasn't there the place seemed so lonely, it just reminded him of the child and the marriage he had lost. New Year, New life, they said, never did Alex think his life would be like this. He looked at his watch and decided that he should get the house ready for when Abby came back. He got up from the couch and grabbed the empty beer bottle that was in the center table. Meredith had invited Abby and him to spend the New Year's with them but Alex wasn't feeling it and declined the invitation. Just when he was finishing making dinner the doorbell rang. He went to open the door to who he knew was his daughter and her stepfather.

"Hey…" Morgan greeted Alex and Abby passed by Alex without saying anything and started springing up the stairs.

"Hello to you too little Miss" Alex shouted back to his daughter and then looked at Morgan.

"She went to pee…" Morgan told him and Alex nodded. "I got to go-"

"Are you working tonight?" Alex insisted "Who are spending the New Year's with?"

"With the guys on the department"

"Do you want to come in?" Alex asked and Morgan shook his head. "That way you can spend it with her…" he insisted and Morgan gave in.

"Thank you…" he said.

"Sure, no problem…" Alex said and closed the door "You know the house already. Make yourself at home."

"I thought doctors worked on these holydays too"

"They don't need the whole stash there… besides I worked on Christmas' day, there's someone replacing me now… One question…"

"Alex, I can't reopen the case without new evidences you know that" Morgan anticipated Alex's question and answered it.

"What should I do then?" Alex asked desperately "I can't just give up on her!"

"Look… hire a Private Investigator, maybe they'll see something we didn't and that way you can bring them to me so we can do new investigations. I know that sound really unprofessional of me but I'm out of leads here man. There's nothing else I can do. I'm sorry"

"Yeah I know… this is just so fuc-" he stopped mid sense when Abby walked in the living room "Now you want to say hello?" he said with a smirk on his face

"Sorry" she said hugging him "I'll go get it" Abby said after they heard a knock on the door. Alex was surprised when he started recognizing the voices that were coming from the door and went to check if he was hearing right. Sure enough he was. His friends from the hospital were starting to get in his house with stacks of food and drinks and children.

"Did you really think we would let you spend the New Year's alone?" Meredith said chuckling which made Alex smile back at her.

_If they are all here, now who the hell is at the hospital? _he chuckled to himself. He couldn't believe they had all cancelled their plans so that he wouldn't be alone with just his child on that day. He thought he would be just fine with Abby, but seeing Abby interact with the other children he realized that day wouldn't be lonely for anybody else but his daughter if it was just the two of them.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

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**A.N.:**

**I'm so sorry it took me almost a year to update this story, but I had a huge writer's block and the amount of stress that college brings didn't help either and I hope you haven't given up on this story, but I'm back and hopefully I'll be updating more often now. You can also send me prompts to my tumblr (****hello-mynameist dot tumblr dot com) ****if you want to. Thank you.**

**-Tiana**

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March 25th 2023

Exactly seven years ago, March became one of Alex's favorite month. Now for him, since 3 years ago, it was the saddest one. The one that turned his life upside-down. Until this day he hadn't understood what really happened on that day 3 years ago. He used to see it all the time on TV, on movies children that got abducted but never did it cross his mind that his own child would join the list. As Morgan advised him, he hired a private investigator but until today all the work had been fruitless. They found that most likely his daughter was living not far from Seattle for a while but that was just it. They never found the exact place nor the person she was staying with. And the worst part of it was that he had to do it all by himself. He thought that at least he would still have Jo by his side but Jo and him hardly ever talk to each other anymore. And it hurt him. It hurt that she seemed to have moved on but how could someone move on from such traumatic experience? It had been months since the last time they had seen each other. They last saw each other when Jo contacted Alex telling him she was looking for her mother and she stayed for a couple days in Seattle, ever since there he didn't know where she was staying at. He even had to find through Mrs. Schmidt that Jo had left the state and refused to let anyone know her whereabouts. He felt alone in this search for their daughter.

Alex opened the door to that room. He hadn't been in there since left for good. That was the last day he entered there but today he felt the urge to get inside that room again. The room looked pretty much the same since the last time she slept in there. Her bed was never made, her toys were still scattered around the floor and the windows were still closed. Jo never wanted to clean up their daughter's room. She scared it would bring back too many memories, she would find everything she didn't want to. _She was trying to forget,_ he thought. He had to admit that he had never found the strength to clean it up either, until this day. Today he would organize it, because, who knew when she'd be back? He didn't want her to come back to a dirty room. He started by lifting up the blinds and opening the windows, he then took her sheets out of the bed and put them into the washing machine and while it washed he cleaned the rest of her room. He put all her toys in their respective place, clean the dust and vacuumed the room. Every single thing he touched in that room brought him near to tears, to know he had been more than 3 years without his kid, without knowing where she was or how she was, it was too much to bear. He now understood why Jo never wanted to clean up this division of the house, it was too painful. Once everything was clean, he sat in her bed and held her stuffed pink bunny close to his chest. That bunny was the only thing still left in this house that Camilla loved to pieces, she would take it where her anywhere she went. It was the only thing left that made him feel closer to her. So he held it. He held it until he felt his eyes sting and the tears ready to fall.

He looked at the bunny and he saw Camilla through it, "You have probably forgotten about us by now but I didn't. I never will. I still look for you every day and I'll never stop looking. I'm so sorry I failed you, I failed to protect you and I failed to keep you safe. My whole has always been a mess… but I tried, I really did try not to screw this up… Now I lost you and I lost your mom too. You're both gone and I… I still don't know how to move forward, because, how do you move on from this, right? I miss you so much and yeah I miss your mommy too and I know she's not home now but she'll be when I get you back. And I'll have all my three girls with me… yeah three. You, your mom and your sister. Yes, you do have a sister. A big sister, she's asleep downstairs on the couch. I know… I didn't know it either. We only found out a couple months after you went missing and she's pretty amazing. She reminds me so much of you and she gives me strength to get up every morning and make it through another day. Every time I think about giving up she reminds me of why I shouldn't. I owe it to her… I owe it to you. I can't leave you both alone in this cold and cruel word. I don't know where you are or how you are but, wherever you are right now I just hope that you're not feeling lonely and scared and I hope you're being loved and that someone's taking good care of you until the day I bring you back home. I love you so, so much and I miss you even more and it hurts so bad not being able to see you every day or to hear you giggling. God… I would give my life just to see your face one more time. I never understood when people said you can't love someone as much as you can miss them, but now I do and I wish I didn't know how that feel, I wish I didn't know how much that hurts… this feeling that sucks the life out of you slowly, little by little and it gets worse every passing minute. I try to be strong, I try not to let my guard down for Abby, and it feels like I'm living two different lives, the real one and the one I created so that Abby would have shoulder to lean on whenever she needs it. She de-"

"Daddy?" Abby's voice interrupted his monologue and pulled him out of the trance he was in. "Dad, where are you?" he heard her voice coming closer to where he was, so he wiped his face free of tears and cleared his throat.

"In here" he said getting up and went to open the door wanting to leave the room but his eldest child beat him to that and opened the door before him.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked him wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him making him lean down and kiss her on top of her head.

"No one. Just thinking out loud." He said and she looked up and that's when she saw how red hid eyes were.

"You were crying…"

"No, it's just all that dust inside… You know, I was cleaning and there was too much dust…" he lied.

"It's okay, daddy. You can cry… It's not a bad thing" she said hugging him tighter and placing her head in the middle of his chest "Know what's not good?"

"What?" he said with smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"To bottle it all up." She said and he knew she couldn't be more right. It amazed him how his twelve year old was as wise as she was and in that moment he felt like he hadn't been as great of a dad as he could be to her. He had put a lot energy in the search of his youngest child that he felt as if he had neglected his oldest. "That's not good." She said and looked up at him smiling. He decided that he would give his everything to her, not that he wasn't giving up on Camilla, he was just accepting that maybe one day faith would bring her back to them.

"I love you kid."

"I love you too daddy"

**xxxxxxxx**

April 2023

"Jo?" a man's voice came from behind her and it gave her the chills. She decided to ignore it hoping it'd go away but it didn't, he called her that name again. She thought no one would recognize her here but she was wrong "Jo Wilson? Is that you?" she finally decided to turn around and met the face of the man who was pronouncing that name.

"Um… hey" she said and she hoped it wasn't written on her face how nervous she was but by the looks he was giving her she knew he could tell she was nervous.

"So is really you…" he smirked. "Who knew we'd meet again" he said following her eyes and landing on a child not too far from where they were both standing.

"Look…" she hesitated and he noticed again because there was no way she wouldn't remember him "I'm in a hurry"

"You don't remember me? After what you did to me? You ru-"

"Mom, I didn't find it" the girl said approaching them making them both look at her and the man frown.

"Didn't she-" he started perplexed by the kid's presence but was interrupted by her.

"I have to go…" she said already walking away with the kid.

"Mom? Mommy, stop!" she whined "Why are we running for?"

"Just keep walking" she answered fastening her steps and pulling the girl never looking back until she reached the parking lot of the supermarket.

"Who is he, mommy?" she asked pointing to the man a few feet behind them and that was when she realized he was following them.

"Get in the car." She demanded startling her child and making her cry.

"No, mommy…" she cried getting closer to her mother in fear instead of doing what she was told.

"It's okay. Just go, I'll get in just in a bit." She reassured her making the child nod and look at the man with fear in her eyes. She had never seen him before, what if he hurt her mom? "I'll be okay, I promise."

"Okay." They both looked to the girl as she climbed in the backseat of the car and once she was inside the car he shook his head incredulously.

"Oh this is so great," he laughed "People will love to know who Jo Wilson really is"

"What?!" she asked him furious "What do you want?"

"What do I want? I don't want anything from you… I just never thought you could kidnap your own child." As soon as those words left his mouth she felt her whole world collapse. _He knows_.


End file.
